36 killed in SL

COLOMBO: Government forces attacked Tamil Tiger rebels along Sri Lanka’s northern front lines, triggering a series of gun battles that killed 35 rebels and one soldier, the military said on Saturday. The latest fighting broke out in the Jaffna, Vavuniya, Welioya and Mannar regions bordering the rebels’ de facto state in the north on Friday, said a defence ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of government regulations. Fighting has escalated on this Indian Ocean island in recent months, with the military stepping up ground assaults and air strikes on rebel-held territory. The government has pledged to crush the insurgents by the end of the year. Troops captured a rebel bunker along the front lines in Vavuniya on Friday after a clash that killed two rebels and one soldier, the official said. Other battles in Vavuniya killed 18 rebels and wounded three soldiers.



Mongolia prepares to lift emergency

ULAN BATOR: Mongolia on Saturday was set to lift a state of emergency imposed after deadly election riots engulfed the capital Ulan Bator, but residents feared renewed violence. Five people died in Tuesday’s riots over alleged rigged parliamentary elections, and locals expressed concern about the prospect of further unrest although calm had returned to the city. “Now in my country it is a very important time and politics are not stable, and if these protests happen again, a lot of people could get hurt or could lose their lives,” said Naraa Baatar, 19. Justice Minister Munkh-Orgil confirmed that the four-day state of emergency, implemented for the first time in Mongolia after the protests, would end at midnight (1600 GMT) on Saturday.



Three killed in Thailand

BANGKOK: Suspected insurgents in Thailand’s restive south shot up a bustling cafe on Saturday, killing three customers and injuring four others, police said. Police Maj. Saenchai Kesarin said the insurgents drove up in a pickup truck and two of them started shooting as customers ate their breakfast. The gunmen then drove off, he said. The cafe was frequented by police and soldiers, he said. Saenchai said the shooting occurred in Yala province’s Raman district, about 800-km south of the capital, Bangkok. Three people died at the scene and the four injured people were rushed to a local hospital, he said.



Georgia could spark war in Abkhazia: Russia

MOSCOW: Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday accused Georgia of harbouring plans to take back the separatist province of Abkhazia by force that could trigger a war, Interfax news agency reported. “Such plans thought up by Tbilisi cannot be seen as anything other than the latest step aimed at escalating tensions in the region, which could turn the conflict into a new war,” Interfax quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. The leader of the separatists in Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, earlier on Saturday said he had been informed of aborted plans for a major military operation by Georgian forces in April or May of this year, Interfax said. The Russian defence ministry spokesman said the announcement raised “concern,” particularly as it allegedly contains detained plans to block the bases of Russian peacekeeping troops operating in the region.



Turk army kills 2 PKK guerrillas

ANKARA: Turkey’s military said on Saturday it killed two Kurdish guerrillas in operations carried out in a south-eastern region of the country the previous day. The army said in a statement posted on its website that the troops seized 46 guns and various equipment and documents belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an operation in Hakkari province on the Iraq-Turkey border. Turkey has stepped up operations against the PKK inside Turkey. Since the end of a February land offensive against guerrillas based in northern Iraq, it has launched a series of air strikes against PKK targets in the neighbouring country. However, army sources said that fighting with the PKK has subsided in recent weeks. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its armed insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of establishing a Kurdish homeland in the southeast of the country.