A roadside bomb exploded near a crowded passenger bus in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Friday, killing 21 people.
Sporadic clashes in the last two days between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military have killed 37 rebels, the military said on Wednesday, as daily land, sea battles and air raids continue in Sri Lanka’s far north. The fighting came amidst news that Tamil Tiger second-in-command, Brigadier Balraj, died from a heart attack in rebel-held north on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka military attacked rebel positions in the island’s far north on Sunday, amidst daily land, air and sea raids, killing 61 Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said on Monday. The fresh attacks, which also saw 15 soldiers killed, came after a rebel suicide bomber riding a motorbike killed 11 people, mostly police officers, in the capital, Colombo, on Friday.
The death toll from a bomb that ripped through a bus outside the Sri Lankan capital rose to 26 on Saturday after two more passengers died of their injuries, police said. The bomb exploded inside the overcrowded bus, blowing off its roof, as it pulled out of the Piliyandala terminal into rush-hour traffic on Friday.
A bomb ripped through a crowded bus just outside Sri Lanka’s capital on Friday, killing at least 24 passengers and wounding more than 50, police said. The bomb exploded inside a privately owned bus at the Piliyandala bus station, a police spokesperson said, adding that victims were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Heavy fighting between rebels and government soldiers subsided in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, a day after intense artillery battles left hundreds killed or wounded, according to officials on both sides. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said they were planning to return the 30 bodies of government troops they captured.
At least 100 Sri Lankan troops were killed on Wednesday when Tamil separatists beat back a military offensive in the island’s north, the rebels said, while placing their own losses at 16. However, the military rejected the claims and said only 38 government troops were killed and 84 wounded.
Ferocious fighting erupted in Sri Lanka on Wednesday as government troops made a fresh bid to break into rebel territory, leaving at least 67 dead on both sides, the Defence Ministry said. A ministry spokesperson said 74 soldiers and about 100 rebels were also seriously wounded.
Sri Lankan government planes bombed three Tamil Tiger boats off the northern coast on Monday, the military said, after fighting since the weekend left 47 rebels dead. The fighting and the air raids were the latest in near daily land, sea and air battles that have left thousands dead in recent months.
Sri Lanka’s national power grid crashed on Sunday, a holiday for the Sinhala-Tamil New Year, most likely due to overload, a senior state electricity company official said. Sunday was the first day of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, when people traditionally stay at home and observe religious ceremonies.
A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka’s highways minister and at least 11 others on Sunday gathered for a marathon race near the capital, the government said. ”Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle is dead from the explosion,” Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media centre for national security, said.
Sri Lanka government troops on Wednesday captured a strip of land from Tamil Tigers after heavy fighting across the island’s north left 42 rebels and a soldier dead, the Defence Ministry said. Security forces killed the guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in separate clashes in the Mannar, Weli Oya and Jaffna districts since Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
Visionary science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke was buried on Saturday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, where the nation paused for an international ”titan” it had adopted as its own. British-born Clarke, best known for his work on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, died aged 90 of respiratory complications and heart failure.
Pioneering science fiction writer and visionary Arthur C Clarke, best known for his work on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. He died of respiratory complications and heart failure doctors linked to the post-polio syndrome that had kept him wheelchair-bound for years.
Security forces armed with loud hailers were deployed in eastern Sri Lanka on Monday to drive away wild elephants blocking access to polling booths, police said. Villagers in Wellaveli told the authorities that they were unable to vote at the first local elections in 14 years because a herd of elephants had blocked their polling booth.
At least 56 Tamil Tiger rebels and four government troops have been killed in heavy fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north over the weekend, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday. Helicopter gunships were deployed against suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam strongholds in the coastal district of Mannar on Saturday, the ministry said.
Sri Lankan troops killed 38 Tamil Tiger rebels for the loss of four soldiers in fresh fighting in the island’s north, the military said on Friday. Thursday’s fighting came as the military captured stretches of Tiger-held terrain in the north-western district of Mannar as part of a wider strategy to gradually retake the Tigers’ northern stronghold and win a 25-year civil war.
Sri Lanka was hit by scathing criticism over its human rights record on Thursday, with its government fingered over hundreds of ”disappearances” and an influential panel storming off the island. The move is a major blow to the image of the island’s government, which pulled out of a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels in January.
Sri Lankan troops captured stretches of Tamil Tiger-held terrain in the island’s north-west on Tuesday, killing seven rebels in clashes that took the two-day death toll to 23, the military said. Fighter jets bombed the Tigers’ de facto state for a second day running, hitting a rebel artillery position and an underground munitions store, the air force said.
No image available
/ 23 February 2008
A suspected Tamil Tiger bomb blast destroyed a passenger bus on the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital on Saturday, wounding 18 people, but no one was killed. The military said deaths were averted after a female passenger spotted a suspect parcel on the bus and informed the driver and conductor, who then evacuated the bus.
No image available
/ 22 February 2008
Tamil Tiger rebels said Sri Lankan government fighter jets killed five civilians in an air raid on their northern stronghold on Friday. Fighting between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.
No image available
/ 14 February 2008
Sri Lankan troops have killed at least 50 Tamil Tiger rebels in fighting in the island’s north, the military said on Thursday. Fighting between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has intensified since the government scrapped a six-year-old ceasefire pact last month. The government says the rebels had used the truce to re-arm.
No image available
/ 12 February 2008
Heavy fighting in northern Sri Lanka has left at least 11 government soldiers and 42 Tamil Tiger rebels dead, defence officials said on Tuesday. The clashes between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Weli Oya area on Monday also left 35 security personnel and 21 rebels wounded, a defence official said.
No image available
/ 11 February 2008
Two policemen were killed by a suspected Tamil Tiger roadside bomb in northern Sri Lanka on Monday, while the death toll from weekend fighting rose to 75 rebels and seven soldiers. Fighting between the military and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has intensified since the government scrapped a six-year ceasefire pact.
No image available
/ 6 February 2008
Sri Lankan troops backed by tanks and artillery destroyed 30 Tamil Tiger bunkers in the island’s far north on Wednesday killing 12 rebels, while air force jets bombed a gathering of rebel leaders, the military said. The air raid targeted a gathering of senior Tigers near their de facto capital of Kilinochchi.
No image available
/ 4 February 2008
With a parade of tanks, troops and rocket launchers, Sri Lanka on Monday marked its 60th anniversary of independence from Britain amid tight security after a string of attacks blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels. Thousands of police and troops were on high alert in the capital Colombo as the island’s armed forces put on a show of military might.
No image available
/ 2 February 2008
A bomb exploded on a civilian bus in the central Sri Lankan town of Dambulla on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding 50, the military said. The explosion was the latest in a series of bomb attacks blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan, rebels fighting to create an independent state in the island’s north and east.
No image available
/ 29 January 2008
Tamil Tiger rebels said Sri Lankan troops on Tuesday ambushed a school bus and killed 18 people, including 11 children, as the military reported killing 67 militants in two days of heavy fighting. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said a ”deep penetrating unit” of the military carried out the bomb attack.
No image available
/ 25 January 2008
Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a Tamil Tiger base in the far north on Friday, a day after ground troops killed 30 rebels in clashes across the region. Seven soldiers were killed in the battles on Thursday, the latest in an intensification of the 25-year civil war following the official scrapping of a truce with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
No image available
/ 18 January 2008
At least nine civilians were shot dead by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in southern Sri Lanka, the military said on Friday, two days after 27 people were killed in a bus ambush in a nearby town. A six-year truce between the state and rebels formally ended on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 17 January 2008
Sri Lanka’s military said on Thursday most of the 27 people killed in a bus ambush were shot by rebels as the passengers tried to flee rather than in the blast that struck the vehicle. Wednesday’s attack came as a six-year truce between the state and rebels formally ended.
No image available
/ 16 January 2008
A roadside bomb tore through a Sri Lankan bus killing 24 people and wounding dozens on Wednesday, officials said, as a six-year ceasefire formally expires between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels. The Ministry of Defence said a large number of schoolchildren were on the bus at the time of the blast in the central district of Moneragala.