Four Tamil rebels killed in Sri Lanka violence
Government soldiers killed four Tamil Tiger rebels in two separate clashes on northern Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, the Defence Ministry said today.
The escalating violence has killed dozens of people in recent days.
In the first incident, two rebels attacked a military roadblock in Jaffna town with hand grenades late yesterday, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a senior officer at the ministry’s information centre. The soldiers fired back, killing one, while the other escaped, he said.
Also on the Jaffna peninsula, the traditional home of ethnic Tamils, insurgents fired at a group of soldiers guarding a defence line that separates rebel and military-held areas, Rajapakse said.
“We fired back and according to information we have, three terrorists have died,” Rajapakse said.
Violence has climbed in recent days, with the military killing 23 rebels in the east on Monday. The rebels also attacked an air force base near the capital in their first air raid ever, and a bomb blast on a bus at a military checkpoint killed 16 people and wounded 25.
The rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country’s 3.1 million Tamil minority, which has faced decades of discrimination.
A Norwegian-brokered cease-fire signed in 2002 temporarily ended more than two decades of fighting. But more than 4,000 people have died since late 2005, when violence flared again, though both sides still claim to abide by the agreement.
At least 65,000 people were killed before the cease-fire.
