UPDATED ON:
Saturday, November 29, 2008
15:44 Mecca time, 12:44 GMT
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA
Sri Lanka hit by heavy floods
Thousands have been displaced in
northern Sri Lanka[EPA] 

At least four people have been killed and more than 71,000 others displaced by floods caused by heavy rains in northern Sri Lanka, an official said.

Keerthi Ekanayake from the Disaster Management Centre said on Saturday that the northern Jaffna peninsula and the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu have been inundated and nearly 6,000 houses destroyed by persistent rain over the past few days.

The government plans to send emergency aid and shelter materials, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's disaster management minister, said.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the flooded regions were already displaced by
the fighting between government troops and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and were living in temporary huts.

Aid agencies were evicted from the territory in September, when the government said it could not guarantee their security amid the fighting.

Offensive slowed down

The Sri Lankan government has intesified its efforts to defeat the rebels and announced on Wednesday that the fall of Kilinochchi, LTTE's political headquarters, was "imminent." 

Monsoon rains have since then slowed the government forces' military offensive to capture Kilinochchi, the defence ministry said on Friday.

Officials said mine-fields had shifted following heavy rains and grounds troops had to move more cautiously.

However, fighting raged along several fronts in the north, with troops killing at least two members of the LTTE on Thursday, the ministry said.

The LTTE did not comment on the military claims, but its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, vowed on Thursday to fight on and push back government forces closing in on Kilinochchi.

 Source: Agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 4
 
George Washington
Afghanistan
30/11/2008
dont post this but....
thank you for updating the story :)

Uncle Austin
United Kingdom
01/12/2008
Bring the Tamil Tigers into Negotiations
Two things can end this violence in my opinion. First Re name Sri-Lanka back to its old historical name of CEYLON doesnt it sound warm and Exotic ? Second, make the English language the official language of the Country. Not because I want to put the Sinhala down, but , lets be practical, its the International speak all of us understand. Bye the way its the most beautiful Country I know, with the most smiling faces in the World

trevor
Afghanistan
02/12/2008
SRI LANKA PROBLEMS
The chauvanistic Sinhalese politicians are the major culprits for all the current sins...there is nothing that cannot be achieved by sitting across the table, but the majority must be sincere in what it offers and not to please the masses. The majority sinhalese population have been living together with the Tamils for centuries without any problems, and it was only the politicians who kindled the fires... the younger generation will soon sort out this mess for the better...

Jeysin
Maldives
06/12/2008
Sri Lanka hit by heavy floods
I've seen Al Jazeera making many news programs on Sri Lankan crisis hope Al Jazeera is an unbiased media! Why not commenting on Sri Lankan latest cluster bomb attacks on a government declared refugee (IDP)settlement?

 
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