An Independent and Interactive Tamil Community Web Site
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An Independent and Interactive Tamil Community Web Site |
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27-09-2006 Sri Lankan air force strikes Tamil Tiger rebel base in north By BHARATHA
MALLAWARACHI Meanwhile, a man who joined the Tamil Tigers in eastern Sri Lanka defected from the group and surrendered to the country's army, the military said. He claimed to have been beaten by the insurgents. Arumugan Thanidan, 20, joined the rebels four months earlier and had received weapons training, said a spokesman at the Media Center for National Security, speaking on condition of anonymity citing policy. Thanidan surrendered to the army on Tuesday near the eastern port town of Trincomalee. Fighter jets Wednesday attacked a Tiger base in the north as months of fighting continued. "The air force launched strikes on an identified rebel base in Mullativu," said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe. He did not give any details. Rebel officials were not available to comment on either government statement. A spike in violence since April has killed hundreds of civilians and combatants from both sides, leaving the island nation's four-year-old cease-fire accord all but disintegrated. On Tuesday evening in northern Jaffna Peninsula, government troops and rebels exchanged artillery and mortar fire across the line that separates government-held territory and the rebel's de facto region. The military said one soldier was killed in the fighting. Foreign mediators are struggling to restore life to the comatose Norwegian-brokered cease-fire accord, which both sides say they still endorse despite clashes that have killed at least 1,000 combatants and more than 100 civilians since July. The Tamil rebels began
fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's largest ethnic
minority, citing decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.
About 66,000 people died in nearly two decades of violence before
the 2002 cease-fire. Source-AOL
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