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June 16 (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot and killed an armed infiltrator from Egypt, Israel Army Radio reported.
A military spokesman said there was no immediate comment on the incident, which took place on Tuesday along a desert border where attempted penetrations, usually by smugglers or migrants seeking jobs, are common.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
May 31 (Reuters) – Germany, one of Israel’s most loyal allies, expressed shock at the deadly interception of an aid flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip and questioned whether the action by Israeli commandos was proportionate.
Two members of the Bundestag lower house of parliament were among five Germans on board the ships stormed by Israeli commandos, the foreign ministry said.
“The German government is shocked by events in the international waters by Gaza,” government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular news conference, adding the government was seeking further clarification about the incident.
“Every German government supports unconditionally Israel’s right to self defence,” said Wilhelm. But he added that Israeli actions should to correspond to what he described as the “basic principle” of proportionality.
“A first look does not speak in favour of this basic principle being adhered to,” he said. Berlin would await further details before judging the incident, he added.
At least 10 pro-Palestinian activists were killed on the ships. Israeli officials said marines were met with knives and staves when they boarded the ships, and a military spokesman said two pistols were found on the captured vessels.
A spokesman for the German foreign ministry said a key point would be whether weapons had been found on the ships.
Due in part to the legacy of the Holocaust, German politicians have been among Israel’s biggest supporters since World War Two and have traditionally been reluctant to criticise the Israeli government. (Reporting by Brian Rohan and Madeline Chambers; editing by Peter Graff)
Islamabad, May 8 (DPA) Pakistan Saturday successfully tested two ballistic missiles capable of delivering both conventional and non-conventional warheads, the military said.
The launches of the short-range Hatf III and medium-range Hatf IV were conducted at the end of annual field exercises of Army Strategic Force Command.
‘Both missiles can carry conventional and nuclear warheads to a range of 290 km and 650 km respectively,’ military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.
Pakistan’s arsenal of missiles target India, while the latter also has missile systems capable of hitting major Pakistani cities.
The two countries are bitter enemies and have fought three wars, two over Himalayan region of Kashmir, since they gained independence from Britain in August 1947.
The latest test came a week after their prime ministers met in Bhutan on the sidelines of a regional conference, and promised to improve relations.
Saturday’s tests are unlikely to aggravate tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as they regularly carry out missile testing and notify each other in advance.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who witnessed the tests along with senior military officers, said it was time for the world to recognise Pakistan as a nuclear power with equal rights and responsibilities.
He also demanded that Pakistan be given a Nuclear Supplier Group waiver for civil nuclear energy cooperation, as energy is a vital economic security need and nuclear power is a clean way forward.
‘Pakistan is capable of providing nuclear fuel cycle services, under IAEA safeguards, and this offer was also made at the Nuclear Security Summit,’ Gilani said.
Pakistan first conducted nuclear tests in 1998, weeks after India’s initial tests, and has been demanding recognition as a declared nuclear state since then.
Colombo, Mar.16 (ANI): Former Sri Lankan army chief, General (retired) Sarath Fonseka will face a military court on Tuesday on charges of engaging in politics while in office.
Fonseka was arrested last month for allegedly plotting a coup against the government. He is also accused of violating military supply procedures.
The former army commander has denied the allegations and said these were political motivated and aimed at denying him the chance to run in parliamentary elections next month.
A military spokesman declined any comment on the court martial. (ANI)
Washington, Sep.18 (ANI): The Pakistan Army’s initiative to sponsor local militias, or the lashkars, as they are commonly known, may have been working in its favour against the Taliban, however some people feel such move could back fire in future.
Backed by the Army, which had initiated an all out operation against the Taliban in Swat and Malakand Divisions in April, more than 8,000 villagers living across the region have joined these militias to try to keep the Taliban away from their villages.
Military officials are encouraging people to join hands with the troops against the extremists and carrying out special drives for forming such lashkars.
“The military is going village to village, speaking with elders and encouraging them to form their own lashkars and unite with existing ones,” said Swat military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan.
While the Army considers that its initiative would yield positive results and prevent the Taliban’s onslaught in the region, experts have raised questions over it saying the move could have catastrophic effect in future.
“They could be temporarily used in some areas where the Taliban are weak or heavily resented, like in Swat. But at the end of the day, the villagers need to do their work; they can’t be armed every night,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted, Rahimullah Yusufzai, a well-known journalist, as saying.
“Creating these private militias may work in the short-run, but what if they later turn on each other to settle personal scores?” usufzai asked
Experts said the military should think twice before trying to extend the experimant into Pakistan’s other tribal agencies, where the Taliban still maintains a strong grip.
“It’s a very interesting experiment. But if it works in Swat, this can’t be replicated anywhere else, because the guys that they were pitted against were way too powerful, the murder of Qari Zainuddin was a case in point,” said Rifaat Hussain, an analyst at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. (ANI)
Colombo – DNA tests carried out on the bodies believed to be of Tamil rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his son have matched, a military spokesman said Thursday.
Army medical experts carried out the tests on the bodies of the two men killed last week in north-eastern Sri Lanka, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
They died as the government wrapped up its military offensive against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and announced it had defeated the guerillas after a more than 25-year conflict.
The tests were carried out amid claims of the rebel leader’s death and counterclaims of his continuing existence.
However, the LTTE’s international affairs spokesman, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, confirmed Prabhakaran’s death after his body was found by the army on May 18.
It was not clear whether the army would invite an independent group to carry out further DNA tests.
The bodies believed to be of Prabhkaran and his son Charles Anthony have been cremated, but the government said samples had been retained for testing.
In a related development, Prabhkaran’s parents were located in a refugee camp Thursday in northern Sri Lanka. They had escaped along with civilians during the final days of fighting between the government and LTTE, which had been struggling for an independent homeland for minority Tamils. (dpa)
Seoul (South Korea), May 27 (ANI): The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has reportedly launched a third short-range missile from its east coast, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday, citing presidential office sources.
According to a Sky News report, this was North Korea’s fifth missile launch since testing a nuclear weapon on Monday.
North Korea warned of a military response this morning after South Korea joined an anti-proliferation exercise, and said it is no longer bound by the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953.
A military spokesman quoted by official media also said the North could no longer guarantee the safety of shipping off its west coast – suggesting a missile could be fired in that direction.
A South Korean newspaper reported US spy satellites have detected signs that North Korea has re-started its nuclear plant at Yongbyon.
The newspaper quoting intelligence sources said the satellites detected steam rising from the reprocessing facility at the nuclear plant.
North Korea had promised it would restart the reprocessing of spent fuel rods in protest at UN criticism of the launch of a long range ballistic missile in April.
In New York members of the United Nations Security Council have gone into closed meetings in an attempt to deliver a unanimous response to North Korea’s continued breach of previous UN resolutions.
Ambassadors from the two countries most affected by the nuclear test, South Korea and Japan, joined ambassadors from the five permanent members of the Security Council -the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China for an hour-long meeting that sought to agree on a new resolution.
But US Ambassador Susan Rice, speaking on behalf of the group, warned it would be a long process. (ANI)
Colombo – As many as 10,000 Tamil rebels have surrendered to the Sri Lankan government in the northern part of the country. Most of them are due to undergo rehabilitation, a state run newspaper reported Sunday.
The government has already started rehabilitation programmes for more than 7,200 members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who surrendered before the fighting was officially declared over last Tuesday, the Sunday Observer in Colombo reported.
Rebels who have yet to be sent to rehabilitation centres have been isolated from the thousands of refugees in camps.
Earlier, Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the government will be drafting laws which would provide an amnesty for some members, though court proceedings will be necessary for those facing serious charges.
The number of rebels who surrendered provided some clue to the size of the Tiger’s military operations.
Fighting in the final phase of the military operations against the rebels, which lasted 34 months, was fierce, with both sides suffering heavy casualties.
Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa last week admitted that 6,261 security force personnel, policemen and women and paramilitary group members were killed in the final phase, while nearly 30,000 others were injured.
He did not give estimated rebel casualties, but military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that an estimated 22,000 rebels were also killed during the period.
On Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka during a one-day visit in which he also met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Ban said United Nations and international non-governmental organizations need unimpeded access to refugee camps, where some 300,000 persons are being accommodated after fleeing Tamil-rebel-held areas in the northern part of the country.
Ban also called for an early political settlement to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and warned that history could repeat itself.
The government should take steps to build confidence among the minorities and address issue of minorities, he said.
Tamil rebels had been fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the northern and eastern parts of the country for the last 26 years. (dpa)
Islamabad – Pakistani troops gained ground in the Swat valley’s main town on Sunday as they fought house to house in what the military called “the most important phase” of the anti-Taliban operation, media reports said.
Infantry soldiers took control of several key intersections in Mingora, the capital of Swat, after overnight gunfights with insurgents holed up in houses and government buildings, the private Aaj news channel reported.
Heavy casualties were inflicted on the militants, but there was no immediate word on the death toll, Aaj cited official sources as saying.
Security forces pushed into Mingora on Saturday, sparking fierce street battles in the town where up to 20,000 residents are still believed to be pinned down in their homes.
The military said on Saturday that capture of the town would be “painfully slow” as soldiers had been told to avoid collateral damage, even if it comes with risks to them.
When the military announced a full-scale offensive in Swat on May 8, it put the number of Taliban militants between 4,000 and 5,000.
But chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters on Saturday that the security forces were fighting 2,000 hard core Taliban. He said a large number of criminals who had joined the militants had left the militia and escaped from the region.
More than 1,100 militants and over 60 soldiers have so far been reported killed in the offensive. The figure could not be confirmed independently.
Escalating violence in the north-west has also displaced around 2 million people since August 2008, with nearly 1.7 million fleeing the fighting in the last three weeks.
The United Nations on Friday launched an appeal for an additional 454 million dollars in aid to assist the uprooted people.
Separately, Pakistani attack aircraft pounded militant positions in the Orakzai tribal district near Afghanistan Sunday, killing at least eight Taliban fighters and wounding five more, the Urdu- language Geo News television channel reported. (dpa)
Colombo, May 18 (ANI): Sri Lanka on Monday formally announced the end of war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after chief V Prabhakaran was shot dead while trying to flee in an ambulance from the war zone in northern Sri Lanka.
The three-decade long fight by the LTTE for a separate homeland for Tamils came to end after the death of Tamil Tigers chief.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told President Mahinda Rajpakse on Monday in a nationally televised ceremony that Sri Lanka’s war against Tamil Tiger rebels has “ended successfully.” We have successfully ended the war,” he told the President, who is his brother and commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
Sri Lankan military commanders also lined up and shook hands with him before starting closed-door talks.
The meeting came as state television and defence officials announced that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the entire rebel leadership had been killed on Monday by government troops.
According to the military, the Tamil Tigers tried to evacuate its leaders early this morning in two vehicles. Army special soldiers of 53 Division intercepted the vehicles moving north and destroyed the convoy after fierce fighting.
The military said it had found 150 bodies of LTTE cadres so far and they are in the process of identifying them.
Prabhakaran was shot dead as he tried to stage a dramatic breakout from the army encirclement, a military spokesman said.
The news of Prabhakaran’s death also came along with reports of bodies of his son Charles Anthony and three other top leaders — Pottu Amman, Soosai and Nadesan being found. (ANI)
Colombo, May 18 (ANI): Liberation of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has reportedly been shot dead along with his son Charles Antony and other Tiger commanders.
Unofficial reports said Prabhakaran was ambushed and shot dead while trying to flee Special Forces who closed in on the last rebel fortification.
A Sri Lankan military spokesman said that there has been no identification of Prabhakaran as yet.
There were reports that only DNA verification would confirm Prabhakaran’s death, as he was known to move around with two doubles.
Earlier in the day, the Sri Lankan Army had claimed that Prabhakaran was alive and surrounded by government troops.
On Sunday, four senior rebel leaders were killed in fighting, the army said.
They included the head of the Tigers” political wing, Balasingham Nadesan, the head of rebels” peace secretariat Seevaratnam Puleedevan, and a military leader known as Ramesh.
The latest claims cannot be verified as reporters are barred from the war zone.
If confirmed, Prabhakaran’s death could signal the end of the nearly three decade-long civil-ethnic war that cost the island nation the lives of thousands of innocent civilians.
Meanwhile, injured civilians continue to leave Sri Lanka”s war zone to get medical care.
The movement of civilians out of the war zone comes as the LTTE conceded defeat after sending out suicide attackers as part of a last-ditch attempt to keep the military”s final assault at bay on the square kilometre they control.
“This battle has reached its bitter end. We have decided to silence our guns,” the LTTE”s diplomatic chief, Selvarajah Pathmanathan, said in a statement posted on the pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com on Sunday
A day before, Sri Lanka”s President Mahinda Rajapaksa had declared victory after troops seized the entire coast for the first time since the war erupted in 1983. (ANI)
Colombo, May 18 (ANI): The Sri Lankan Army on Monday claimed that Liberation of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, is alive and surrounded by government troops.
A BBC report quoted a military spokesman as saying that Prabhakaran is guarded by about 200 rebels in a small patch of jungle.
Earlier, four senior rebel leaders were killed in fighting, the army said.
They included the head of the Tigers’ political wing, Balasingham Nadesan, the head of rebels’ peace secretariat Seevaratnam Puleedevan, and a military leader known as Ramesh.
The army also says it has found the body of Prabhakaran’s son, Charles Anthony.
The latest claims cannot be verified as reporters are barred from the war zone.
Meanwhile, injured civilians continue to leave Sri Lanka’s war zone to get medical care.
The movement of civilians out of the war zone comes as the LTTE conceded defeat after sending out suicide attackers as part of a last-ditch attempt to keep the military’s final assault at bay on the square kilometre they control.
“This battle has reached its bitter end. We have decided to silence our guns,” the LTTE’s diplomatic chief, Selvarajah Pathmanathan, said in a statement posted on the pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com on Sunday
A day before, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa had declared victory after troops seized the entire coast for the first time since the war erupted in 1983.
Rajapaksa is due to formally make a victory announcement in parliament on Tuesday morning.
The final battle picked up speed after the last of 72,000 civilians who have fled over four days were freed, the military said.
Injured civilians were put on to trucks by soldiers and seen driving away from the makeshift tents.
The United Nations and others say the Tigers had been holding them as human shields, and warned that they were at grave risk. (ANI)
Colombo: Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was on Monday shot dead by Sri Lankan special forces as he tried to stage a dramatic breakout from the army encirclement, a military spokesman said.
Prabhakaran and his top aides came out of their last hiding place in a small convoy of van and an ambulance and tried to drive out of the war zone, but were gunned down, he said.
However, the army is withholding an official announcement till a DNA test of the bodies is conducted.
The Tiger chief was killed with two others, who are yet to be identified but believed to be his closest associates LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Sea Tigers’ chief Soosoi.
The deaths of the top LTTE leaders came a day after Tamil Tigers conceded defeat saying the decades-old battle has reached its “bitter end” and they have decided to ‘silence’ their guns.
Earlier in the morning, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara had said that Prabhakarn was still alive but completely encircled by advancing Sri Lankan forces in a tiny jungle area north of Vellamullivaikkal after most of the LTTE’s top leaders were found killed.
The army said that its special forces had encircled Prabhakaran, Pottu Aman and Soosoi who were boxed into a 100m x 100m area.
The killing of Prabhakaran came as officials confirmed that more than 220 frontline rebel cadres, including his elder son Charles Anthony, LTTE political head Balasingham Nadesan and LTTE peace Secretariat chief S Pulidevan had been killed in fierce battles in the last 12 hours.
The other top LTTE leaders slain include Black Tigers' chief Ramesh, Tigers' police wing chief Ilango and senior leaders Sundaram and Kapil Amman.
The body of 24-year-old Anthony, chief of LTTE's air wing, was found during mopping up operations in the last rebel-held territory in the no-fire zone on Monday morning, the defence ministry said.
Nadesan, a former constable of Sri Lankan police, was heading the political wing of the Tamil Tigers. S Pulidevan was the head of "LTTE peace secretariat" while S Ramesh was the chief of Black Tigers.
According to the defence sources, the body of Anthony was found after an unsuccessful attempt by the Tamil Tigers to evacuate their leader's son early on Monday morning.
Anthony was known to be the head of Information and Technology department of the LTTE.
After being cornered, LTTE on Sunday said it had no other option but to silence its guns.
"We remain with one last choice – to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns," LTTE's chief of international relations Selvarasa Pathmanathan said.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," Pathmanathan said, adding that "our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer."
The rebels' statement followed President Mahinda Rajapaksa's declaration on Friday in Jordan that the LTTE has been defeated militarily.
"My government with the total commitment of our Armed Forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation, finally defeated the LTTE militarily," Rajapaksa had said.
The over three-decades old conflict for a separate Tamil state waged by LTTE has left more than 70,000 dead in pitched battles, suicide attacks, bomb strikes and assassinations.
Islamabad – Pakistan on Saturday rejected an international media report that United States was planning to capture its nuclear stockpile if militants take power in the country as “mere fiction.”
“Pakistan’s multi-tiered and robust command and control structure is operational and we are also fully capable of safeguarding our nuclear assets against any kind of threat,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
The US network Fox News had reported on Friday that Washington had planned to enter Pakistan and securing its mobile arsenal of nuclear warheads if it feared that Islamic republic was about to fall under the control of the Taliban, Al Qaeda or other Islamic extremists.
Fox quoting American intelligence sources said the operation to occupy Pakistani weapons would be conducted by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the super-secret commando unit headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The JSOC is US army’s chief terrorists hunting squad and it units are operating in Afghanistan, on Pakistan’s western border.
The mission became important due to expansion of Islamic extremists in recent months to areas just 60 miles from the capital of Islamabad.
Pakistan being the only Islamic country with nuclear capability is highly sensitive to the issue and usually sharply reacts to media stories trying to play with the idea of its weapons falling into wrong hands.
“People with vested interests now and again bring up the nuclear issue but if you do not give them front page coverage, these stories will die natural deaths,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told media.
Fox, while citing a secret Defense Intelligence Agency document first disclosed in 2004, said Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal of 35 weapons. The document said Islamabad planned plans to more than double the arsenal by 2020. (dpa)
Kandahar (Afghanistan), May 13 (ANI): Taliban fighters are using recently acquired voter identification cards as makeshift passports to smooth border crossings from Pakistan and ease travel between cities in Afghanistan’s southern provinces, reports the Globe and Mail.
When produced, the voter registration cards give fighters an appearance of legitimacy, they say, and help them “trick” Afghan security and international forces into allowing them to sail through police and army checkpoints set up to limit the militants’ mobility.
Interviews with several mid-level Taliban commanders and low-level fighters spread across southern Kandahar province, including the Taliban-dominated villages of Mushan and Zangabad, revealed that insurgents have no intention of using their voter registration cards to participate in the coming election.
The militants interviewed said they had applied for the cards on the advice of senior commanders in Quetta, Pakistan.
It was suggested that the cards might help insurgents traverse southern Afghanistan’s dangerous highways, which are controlled by Afghan troops in some sections and by Taliban in others.
A Canadian military spokesman deferred comment on the issue to Afghan officials.
Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa said he has not had any reports of Taliban using voter registration cards as if they are travel visas.
“This is propaganda. They’re just putting words out. They cannot fight face to face, so this is what they do. They put words in the media,” he told the paper. (ANI)