Thousands of Sri Lankans under fire waded across a lagoon to escape the island’s war zone, where the military has surrounded Tiger rebels.
Soldiers killed 150 rebels carrying out waves of counter attacks, and the pace of refugees fleeing the war zone picked up speed over the weekend.
Sri Lankan soldiers pressured the Tamil Tigers’ last stronghold on the Jaffna Peninsula on Wednesday
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.
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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 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.
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/ 24 December 2007
Sri Lankan troops killed 41 Tamil Tiger fighters in a series of weekend clashes in the island’s civil war-ravaged north, while three soldiers were also killed, the military said on Monday. Eleven rebels were killed in fighting in the northern districts of Vavuniya and Jaffna on Sunday, while another eight were killed in the north-western district of Mannar.
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/ 2 December 2007
At least 52 combatants were killed and 25 wounded in fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka’s embattled north during the weekend, the Defence Ministry said Sunday. With the upsurge in clashes along the de facto frontlines separating the mini-state held by the guerrillas, the military stepped up the already tight security.
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/ 1 November 2007
Sri Lankan troops killed 31 Tamil Tigers fighters in a series of clashes in the north of the island, as warplanes bombed rebel training camps on Thursday, the military said. Two soldiers were also killed and 17 wounded in the clashes with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
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/ 26 October 2007
Sri Lanka has ordered a high-level probe into a public display of the naked bodies of Tamil Tiger rebels who devastated a key air force base earlier this week, officials said on Friday. Two tractors pulled trailers loaded with the stripped corpses and mutilated body parts from the base to Anuradhapura Hospital, 210km north of Colombo.
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/ 24 October 2007
Sri Lankan troops killed 11 Tamil Tiger rebels in a series of clashes in the island’s restive north and one soldier also died, the military said on Wednesday. Troops fought four separate engagements with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters in the northern district of Vavuniya late on Tuesday.