| Submit your comments on this article |
| Sri Lanka |
| 66 killed in clashes near Sri Lankan rebel headquarters |
| 2008-09-28 |
| Sri Lanka's military killed at least 66 Tamil Tiger insurgents during a siege of the rebel capital and in air and ground assaults along the northern battlefront, the military said on Saturday. Two soldiers were also killed in Friday's fighting, some of the heaviest since the military three months ago stepped up an advance into an area held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north of the Indian Ocean island country. Most of Friday's fighting centred around the LTTE's headquarters town of Kilinochchi, a symbolic and strategic target for the military about 330 km (205 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. "Troops killed 52 LTTE terrorists in heavy battles in Kilinochchi on Friday," a military spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. Four rebels and 21 soldiers were wounded in the clashes, the spokesman said. In other battles along the curving frontline stretching from coast to coast, the military said 14 guerrillas and two soldiers were killed, while 36 rebels and eight soldiers were wounded. On Saturday, the air force said jets blasted a training camp for female "Black Tigers", elite insurgents chosen for suicide missions. They gave no details of casualties. The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment. Getting a clear picture of death tolls in the war is difficult, since the military bars nearly all journalists from the battle zone and both sides have for years been engaged in a heavy propaganda duel. The LTTE, on US, EU, and Indian terrorism lists, has since 1983 fought the government to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamil people in Sri Lanka. It has eliminated moderate Tamil political groups during a 25-year-old war that has killed 70,000 people. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to wipe the Tigers out militarily and offered some devolution of power to the north, along the lines of what his government did after routing the Tigers from the east of Sri Lanka last year. Since independence from Britain in 1948, Sri Lanka's governments have been led by politicians from the Sinhalese majority that makes up 75 percent of the country's 21 million population. |
| Posted by:Fred |