Sri Lanka Launches Air Strikes Against LTTE
Ankit Gupta - All Headline News Staff Writer Colombo, Sri Lanka (AHN) - Sri Lankan Air Force jets pounded suspected Tamil Tiger positions in north-eastern parts of the country after the guerrillas allegedly closed sluice gates of an irrigation tank there, Press Trust of India sources said. Jet fighters bombed camps of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the troubled district of Trincomalee to help an effort to restore water to 1,500 farmers, spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said. "Aircraft carried out several bombings purely as a humanitarian gesture to support the movement of irrigation engineers who went there to open the gates," he said. He said the engineers could not go without military escorts while the troops needed air support. It is the first air attack in two months in the area after the May bombing of Tiger targets when the rebels were held responsible by the government for blowing up a civilian bus and killing 64 passengers. In a statement earlier today, the government's peace secretariat said it had repeatedly asked the LTTE, through the Norwegian peace brokers and truce monitors, to restore the water supply to over 1,500 people in Trincomalee district. "The government of Sri Lanka has also raised the matter with the diplomatic community and international organizations," the statement said. "There is agreement that the denial of water to civilians by the LTTE is a blatan |
