Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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January 3, 2009

Sri Lanka Bombs Rebels in North
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=2149E80:A6F02AD83191E160A32274F1892BE95021A4E82C900CD027&
 
Military says it is pushing farther into rebel-held territory, bombing
northeastern port town of Mullaitivu, other rebel strongholds 
Sri Lanka's military says its jets and helicopters bombed Tamil Tiger
positions in the country's north Saturday, a day after government troops
seized the rebels' headquarters in Kilinochchi. The military says it is
pushing farther into rebel-held territory, bombing the northeastern port
town of Mullaitivu and other rebel strongholds in the north. Sri Lankan
Government troops stands guard at the site of a bomb blast in Colombo,
03 Jan 2009Also Saturday, authorities say a bomb planted under a vehicle
exploded in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, wounding three people. A
military spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, blamed rebels for the
attack, saying it was likely intended to create panic. On Friday, a
suicide bomber blew himself up in another area of Colombo, killing three
people. That attack followed President Mahinda Rajapaksa's announcement
that the military had captured Kilinochchi after months of intense
fighting. The rebels acknowledged losing Kilinochchi but said they had
moved their headquarters farther northeast before the town fell. The
rebels have been fighting since 1983, to establish an independent
homeland for members of the Tamil ethnic minority in the island nation's
north and east. They say Tamils are treated as second-class citizens by
the Sinhalese majority. The civil war has killed more than 70,000
people. The United States considers the rebels a terrorist organization
but is calling for a peaceful dialogue to resolve what it considers to
be the "legitimate issues of the Tamils."

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters. 


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