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Sri Lankan Air Force Continues Attacks on Tamil Rebel Targets
The Sri Lankan Air Force which commenced attacks on separatist Tamil Tiger rebel bases in the north of the country on Saturday continued the offensives till late Sunday night destroying several targets, according to Air Force Commander Jayalath Weerakkody.
He said a number of targets of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) located close to each other have been destroyed, killing an unknown number of rebels.
He said that the rebel casualties are expected to be known soon. The air strikes had been launched following reports that the LTTE rebels were preparing a major assault in the north, he added.
The latest air strikes against Tamil rebels was the first since April when both sides suffered heavy losses in the battle in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
"In view of the massive build-up of LTTE forces around the peninsula the government of Sri Lanka has been compelled to act in self-defence to safeguard the territorial integrity of the State," the government said in a statement on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the military said that Kanagiamaran alias Anthony Jonson, the deputy leader of the Sea Tigers, the seaborne section of LTTE, had been killed in an explosion in the Mannar district on Friday, but no further details were given.
The intercepts of LTTE radio transmission has confirmed the rebel leader's death, it said.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces in the north and east of the country since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland. The bloody war has killed some 64,000 people.
Leftist Party to Vote Against Extension of Emergency Sri Lanka's leftist party JVP or People's Liberation Front will oppose the extension of the emergency regulations in the war-torn country to be debated in Parliament on Friday, The Island newspaper said Monday.
The paper quoted JVP propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa as saying on Sunday that it was absurd to assume that the non- extension of the emergency regulations would mean that separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels could operate legally in the country.
He said the government should make use of anti-terrorist legislation to continue the ban on the Tigers without making absurd claims to frighten the people.
Weerawansa charged that the government was using the regulations to harass its political opponents. On the no- confidence motion against the government he said the Polit Bureau of JVP had left the decision with the Parliamentary group which will act at the right moment.
The JVP which had called for the establishment of five Independent Commissions for the public service, elections, judiciary, police and media said it had nothing to do with the non- confidence motion.
Though the JVP's ten votes are crucial at the no-confidence motion the main opposition United National Party (UNP) is confidently predicting that even without the JVP vote the motion will be passed. The no-confidence motion against the government tabled by UNP on June 22 will be debated in Parliament later this month.
The government has lost its majority in the 225-member Parliament when its ally the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress pulled out of the government two days before the submission of no-confidence motion by UNP when Muslim leader Rauf Hakeem was sacked by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The government has now 109 seats in the Parliament, four short of the 113-seat simple majority for its survival.
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