8 civilians killed in SLAF bombardment in Poonakari,
children among victims

Eight civilians including a 6-month-old infant, a 4-year-old boy, their mother, a 8-year-old girl and an English teacher were killed, 14 including four children and another teacher were wounded in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aerial bombardment of a civilian settlement at Kiraagnchi in the Poonakari division of Ki'linochchi district Friday at 8:10 a.m. Three houses were fully destroyed and many houses have sustained damage in the indiscriminate aerial bombardment in which more than 20 bombs were dropped by four bombers. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan ministry of defence in Colombo claimed that the SLAF had attacked "an inland sea tiger base" at Kiraagnchi.

14 dead in Sri Lanka bombings, president says winning war

At least 14 people were killed in two roadside bombings in Sri Lanka, as the island's president marked independence day by insisting he was winning the war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

A bomb in the northeast of the ethnically-divided island killed 13 bus passengers and wounded 16 others, including children, the military said, adding that among the dead were two women and two off-duty soldiers.

A similar blast in the south against a military vehicle killed one soldier. Three other soldiers escaped with injuries.

The attacks, both blamed on the Tamil Tigers, came hours after an annual military parade at Colombo's seaside Galle Face promenade to mark Sri Lanka's 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.

In an address to the nation, President Mahinda Rajapakse said the "challenge bestowed upon us by history is the defeat of terrorism," and said government forces had cornered the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north.

"We faced this challenge squarely without avoiding it. Our security forces are today achieving victories against terrorism unprecedented in history," he said.

"Terrorism is receiving an unprecedented defeat," said Rajapakse, whose government last month pulled out of a tattered truce with the rebels, who are fighting for an independent ethnic homeland in the Sinhalese-majority island.

Suicide bombing kills 12 at Sri Lanka train station

A suicide bomber attacked a train at Colombo's main railway station Sunday, killing at least 12 and injuring 100 others on the eve of Sri Lanka's independence day celebrations, officials said.

The blast near a suburban train as it arrived at the Fort terminal came just hours after six people were hurt in a hand grenade attack at Sri Lanka's main zoo on the outskirts of Colombo, prompting authorities to boost security.

Fearing more such attacks, the government put off by three days Monday's opening of a public exhibition marking Independence Day, officials said, adding that it was due to "security considerations."

A police spokesman said the train attack had been carried out by a suspected female operative of the Tamil Tigers, the rebel group fighting to carve out a separate homeland in the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island nation.

"The bombing has all the hallmarks of the Tigers," a police officer at the scene said. "The head of the woman suicide bomber was found on a platform."

The officer said initial reports indicated that the woman had blown herself up aboard the train, but forensic experts later determined that she had carried out the attack on the platform as passengers were exiting the train.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but defence officials said they believed it to be the work of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The United States, one of Sri Lanka's main financial backers, condemned the spate of bombings and asked all sides in the decades-old conflict to ensure the safety of civilians.

Britain warns Sri Lanka

Britain’s top envoy to Sri Lanka has asked the government to improve its human rights record and politically end the island’s drawn out Tamil separatist conflict or risk international sanctions.

British High Commissioner (ambassador) Dominick Chilcott said the UK had a direct interest in ending the conflict in its former colony, partly because of the law and order problems in London caused by rival Sri Lankan groups.

Chilcott, making his final public appearance before his posting as number two in the British mission in Washington early next year, issued thinly veiled warnings on the government to improve its rights record.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly resisted calls for United Nations (UN) monitoring of human rights amidst allegations that over 1,000 people had been killed or disappeared at the hands of government forces fighting Tamil rebels this year.

Chilcott warned that it would be a mistake to view something as sensitive as human rights as a purely internal matter.

"Those who argue for the inviolability of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a country are swimming against the tide of history," he said while adding that intervention may not always mean military action.

"There are many non-military interventions that a country can make - from arguing and persuading, to economic and political sanctions," he said.

He cautioned the government to immediately to stop equating human rights campaigners as "unpatriotic" and halt "demonising" United Nations agencies operating in the island’s embattled regions.

"There should be no further equating support for human rights and the rule of law with support for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," he said.

"Being critical of the government’s record on human rights does not mean you support the LTTE. For the record, let me say again, the British government, which outlawed the LTTE in 2001, unreservedly condemns the LTTE’s terrorist activities.

"It would also be good to see greater recognition that there is no contradiction in being a peace campaigner and a patriotic Sri Lankan," he added.

There was no immediate reaction to Chilcott’s address at a ceremony commemorating prime minister Dudley Senanayake.

Chilcott said Britain was against the tactics adopted by the Tiger guerrillas, but did not consider their demand for a separate state as illegal.

"I am not saying that the political aspiration for Eelam (separate state) is illegitimate... What is crucial, however, is what methods are used... And the LTTE’s methods are simply unacceptable."

Suicide Bomb Targets Sri Lanka Official

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the heart of Colombo on Wednesday, killing one person in an attempt to assassinate a government minister, the military said.

The attack took place outside the office of Douglas Devananda, the minister of social services and the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, an ethnic Tamil party seen as a rival to the Tamil Tigers rebel group, the military said.

Devananda, the repeated target of assassination attempts, was not injured in the attack, the military said. The blast killed one of his staff members and critically injured another, said Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, the medical director of Colombo National Hospital. A third person was lightly injured, he said.

"This was an attempt to kill the minister," said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said he was unaware of the blast. The Tamil Tigers, listed as a terror organization by the United States and the European Union, have carried out more than 240 suicide bombings.

SRI LANKA: "Groundless" allegations could threaten aid work - UN official

"Groundless public accusations can seriously compromise our ability to carry out humanitarian and development work and are also putting the safety and security of UN staff and non-governmental organisation (NGO) partners at risk," Neil Buhne, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sri Lanka, said in a recent statement released by the UN Inter Agency Standing Committee (ISAC) country team.

Buhne's warning came in response to recent accusations against the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) by members of the Sri Lankan opposition, widely circulated in the local press. They include allegations that the UN agency had imported "combat rations" allegedly destined for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), that it had channelled finances to a banned organisation, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), and that its staff participated in a local protest in June 2007. On 26 November UNICEF was accused of providing the LTTE with bullet-proof vehicles.

Sri Lanka vows to kill Tamil Tiger leader

Sri Lanka's government has marked the birthday of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran with a vow to kill him.

The island's powerful defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, said Colombo now had the upper hand in the long-running conflict, with the elusive guerrilla chief limited in both his movements and ability to score strategic victories.

Earlier this month the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S.P. Thamilselvan, was killed in what the government said was a precision air strike on the north and not a mere lucky hit.

"The killing of Thamilselvan sent a very powerful message: they know we have good intelligence on their movements," Rajapakse told AFP in an interview Monday at the heavily-fortified defence ministry in Colombo.

Monday was also the day the LTTE chief marked his 53rd birthday, and Rajapakse said that if all goes to plan it will be his last.

"We are after him. We are specifically targeting their leadership," he said.

"For the last few months he (Prabhakaran) has been even more restricted in his movements. We want to keep them under pressure. We are gathering intelligence, information."

The threat came as Prabhakaran was set to give his annual speech from a jungle hideout in his northern mini-state marking the end of "heroes' week", commemorating around 20,000 Tamils who have died fighting for a separate homeland.

Prabhakaran's speech, due to be broadcast later Tuesday, will come at the end of a year of several setbacks for the LTTE.

Government forces regained full control over the east of the island in July, and have also managed to sink what the government says is the bulk of the rebels' fabled fleet of gun-running ships.

The outspoken defence secretary, who is also the brother of the island's president, insisted that the tide of the 35-year-old conflict -- Asia's longest-running civil war -- was finally turning in the government's favour.

He also signalled that the year ahead would see a renewed escalation of the conflict, finally closing a chapter of "phoney war' that began with a 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire and its progressive collapse.

"Our objective is to weaken them. We have to defeat them militarily, we have to control Wanni," he said of the LTTE's northern stronghold.

"It is possible. We just have to squeeze them. Then a political solution becomes possible," the defence secretary said, repeating his view that the Tamil Tigers only used a truce to smuggle in more arms and can therefore only be bombed into peace.

Prabhakaran, in his speech Tuesday, is also expected to cast aside any talk of diplomacy and issue a rallying call to his thousands of hardened guerrillas.

The LTTE supremo, renowned for his ability to bring out the suicidal tendencies in his followers, has also managed to withstand successive government offensives in the past.

Propping up genocidal Sinhala State counterproductive,
International Community should change approach
- LTTE leader

The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), V Pirapaharan, in his annual Heroes' Day statement put a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of the international community for the breakdown of the peace process. He said that the involvement of the international community to resolve the Tamil national question has been unhelpful and added that their failure to condemn unambiguously the military path of the current regime has created the present situation in the island. He asserted that the propping up of the genocidal Sinhala State by the international community through economic aid, military aid and subtle diplomatic efforts will be counterproductive.

About the long and bitter history of deception by the Sinhala State he further said, “None of the Southern parties are ready to accept the core principles for a lasting peace: the Tamil homeland, the Tamil nation and the Tamil Right to self determination. The ruling party is adamant on unitary rule; the red and yellow parties are calling for no solution at all; and the main opposition party, somersaulting from its earlier position, is, on the one hand, saying nothing concrete and using evasive language to support the military actions of the government and, on the other hand, saying it supports peace efforts. All this clearly clarifies our point and proves beyond doubt that all the Sinhala political parties are essentially chauvinistic and anti-Tamil. To expect a political solution from any of these Southern parties is political naivety.”

The Sri Lankan air force pounded Tamil Tiger rebel positions on Monday in the restive north and four civilians were shot dead by rebels.

The air raid in rebel-held Kilinochchi and the attack on the civilians in the north-central district of Anuradhapura are the latest bouts in intensified fighting between government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

The military is on alert for possible Tamil Tiger rebel attacks during rebel "Heroes' Week" celebrations which will end on Tuesday after shadowy rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who lives in hiding, makes his annual policy statement.

"Air force jets bombed a LTTE leaders' rendezvous point in Puthukudiyruppu in the evening and 10 minutes later, another identified LTTE target was raided west of Kilinochchi," a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said.

The military said four civilians were shot dead by the Tamil Tiger rebels in Anuradhapura.

The military also said 14 rebels had been killed in north of the island in separate clashes during the past 24 hours.

There was no independent confirmation and military analysts say both sides exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own.

The Tigers, marking "Heroes' Week" by honouring comrades killed in the fight for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

"Normally they increase their activities whereever possible, we know that. Therefore we have educated our troops to be extra vigilant," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Sri Lankan war planes bombed the Tamil Tiger-held north Sunday, with the government claiming it destroyed a satellite communications centre but the rebels saying only civilians were killed.

The air strike hit an area just outside the rebels' political capital of Kilinochchi that was "also a clandestine meeting place for LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) leaders," the defence ministry said in a statement.

But the LTTE said the attack only hit a civilian settlement, killing three members of the same family and injuring seven other locals.

The rebels also said three more civilians died in the north in a roadside bomb attack that it claimed was carried out by the national army's so-called deep penetration units.

According to the LTTE, the government was trying to disrupt the rebels' "heroes' week" celebrations, which ends on Tuesday with an annual policy statement from the group's elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The government has not commented on the roadside bombing.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels exploded a roadside bomb in eastern Sri Lanka on Saturday, killing two policemen, the military said.

The blast occurred in Batticaloa district around 10.00 a.m. as the two officers were riding past on their motorbike, a defense official said on condition of anonymity, citing government policy.

In a move to cripple the LTTE's fund raising activities, Sri Lankan government on Thursday banned the Tamil Rehabilitations Organisation, a charity group considered a front of the Tiger rebels. The LTTE itself is not banned in Sri Lanka as it is felt this would foreclose the option of any direct negotiations with the organisation.

The decision of Sri Lanka government comes days after United States imposed ban on the charity organisation. Welcoming the decision of US treasury to freeze the assets of TRO in the United States last week, Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohita Bogollagama had told Parliament that the government could now expect a "significant decline" in the collections of the LTTE world wide which ranged from USD 20 million to USD 30 million per month.

The outfit has maintained that freezing of the TRO bank accounts by the Government of Sri Lanka and now the US Government will further exacerbate the humanitarian situation and cause untold suffering to the approximately 300,000 people who rely on TRO assistance.

This decision to proscribe the TRO was taken by the Cabinet following the findings of group's links with the LTTE, a Sri Lankan government statement said. The TRO under guise of a charity organisation collected and directed funds to the LTTE for procurement operations. Those operations included the purchase of ammunitions, equipment, communication devices, and other technology for the LTTE, it said.