Troops, Rebels Exchange Gun-Fire In Sri Lanka
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Colombo, Sri Lanka (AHN) - Sri Lanka's volatile ceasefire hung by a thread as government soldiers and Tamil Tiger soldiers exchanged heavy gun-fire and the Finnish peace monitors said they would leave the country before September 1. Government forces have launched long-range artillery attacks against identified positions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northeastern Trincomalee, two days after hitting the rebels with air strikes. A military official said to AFP, Friday, "Heavy artillery and mortar bomb attacks continued in the Trincomalee district." The rebels said six of their cadres have been killed and five more were wounded on Thursday's attack. In Trincomalee, suspected Tiger gunmen shot dead two policemen, bringing the death toll to 910 since the violence erupted in December 2005. Meanwhile, Finland announced Friday it is pulling out its peace monitors in Sri Lanka to avoid getting caught in the cross fires. Finland is one of the three European Union member states providing staff for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. Finnish foreign ministry mission desk officer Marita Maunola told AFP in Helsinki, "Based on the fact the LTTE are not going to guarantee the monitors' safety after September 1, we will recall our observers by then." The Tamil Tigers have demanded observers from Denmark, Finland and Sweden to leave the island after |
