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| Sri Lanka |
| Dozens claimed dead as Sri Lanka, rebels clash |
| 2007-07-21 |
| Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers launched a pre-dawn attack on an army detachment in the restive northwestern district of Mannar on Friday, and both sides claimed to have killed nearly a dozen of their foes. The incident came a day after the government staged a show of military might in the capital with a parade of tanks and troops and a fly-past by fighter jets to celebrate the capture of vast swathes of eastern territory from the rebels. It also comes after a rash of land and sea clashes, ambushes and air raids that have killed an estimated 4,500 people since last year alone. “There was a confrontation in the early morning in Mannar. The LTTE fired mortars and artillery. We lost three (soldiers), and four were wounded,” said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. “Ground troops observed nine LTTE cadres killed, and technical sources say 24 were injured.” LTTE called their attack a “pre-emptive strike”, and said they had killed 10 soldiers and that four of their own fighters were killed. “One of our units raided a mini camp in a pre-emptive strike as it was a source of harassment and shelling of civilian areas,” Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the rebels’ de facto capital of Kilinochchi. “Our men found 10 bodies of Sri Lankan army soldiers and collected military materials such as weapons.” Ilanthiraiyan said subsequent army shelling had hit a civilian settlement on the Tigers’ side of the front line separating government from rebel territory, wounding a mother and her 11-month-old child. There was no independent confirmation of what had happened or the death toll. Japan aid to clear mines: Japan said Friday it was giving 3.2 million dollars to clear land mines in Sri Lanka even as government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels stepped up attacks against each other. The money will go to five international mine clearing charities and help civilians to go back to their homes in areas that have seen recent clashes between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said. |
| Posted by:Fred |