Tigers vow reprisals as Sri Lanka launches new strikes

Sama

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military launched air and artillery strikes on Tamil Tiger areas in the island's northeast on Wednesday, a day after a suicide bomb attack blamed on the rebels shattered an already fragile ceasefire.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the latest strikes came after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired on naval patrol craft off the eastern port of Trincomalee for a second day.

The rebels said they would retaliate if the government continued the attacks, launched after a suspected Tiger suicide bomb in the capital killed nine and wounded the army commander.

"It is like a war situation in Trincomalee. If the attacks continue, the LTTE will be forced to take military defensive action," S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters.

The army said it had closed borders with rebel territory. Some aid workers helping rebuild after the 2004 tsunami said they were evacuating from the north and east. United Nations agencies stayed where they were, but canceled transport


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060426/...srilanka_dc_36

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My India, 2005-2008

PRIYA

27 April 2006

Colombo - Thousands of frightened people have been left homeless in northeastern Sri Lanka after government air strikes on suspected Tamil Tiger rebel positions, the rebels and a United Nations official said on Thursday.

"More than 40 000 people have been displaced and are languishing as refugees," the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement.

"They are terrorised. Normalcy in civilian life has been utterly destroyed."
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http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3& art_id=qw1146119041767S645&new slett=1&em=22258a6a20060427ah

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Happiness is for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched and those who have tried. For only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. (Anon.)

Sama

Sri Lanka strife prompts Tamil Nadu alert
By Indo Asian News Service


Chennai, April 27 (IANS) The more than 1,000-km long coastline in Tamil Nadu is on high alert following escalating strife between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

The Coast Guard has been asked to step up patrols along the narrow strip of sea known as Palk Strait that divides Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka.


Around 700 gelatine sticks and 483 detonators were seized from a house and six people were taken into custody Wednesday in the coastal district of Ramanathapuram, 700 km south of Chennai, the police said.


Naval and Coast Guard helicopters are also keeping a watch on the on the Palk Strait ever since a suicide bomb attack in Colombo Tuesday in which the island's army chief was seriously injured sent tensions soaring. About 10 people died in the attack blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).


Indian security forces are especially vigilant in Ramanathapuram, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts that receive Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka to escape violence.


All vehicles on the southern highways are being checked and the refugee inflow in Thondi, Dhanushkodi and Mandapam is being closely monitored.


Police are also monitoring petrol pumps, explosives dealers, LTTE sympathisers and fishermen suspected to be smuggling petrol and medicines across the Palk Strait to northern Sri Lanka.


The Coast Guard has said that Tamil Nadu fishermen have been told to report any refugee movement in the area.

crvlvr

200,000 Sri Lankan refugees came to India in the 1980s Schools were closeed for weeks I don't think India can afford anymore.

http://www.redcross.int/EN/mag/magaz...7_3/20-21.html