News from South Asia.
Sri Lanka Offensive Aims At Tamil Rebel Headquarters
The Sri Lankan army is closing in on Kilinochchi, the de facto capital of Tamil Tigers (LTTE). For more than two decades, the country has been entangled in a bitter civil war. More than 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE.
More Violence in India’s Assam
India’s northeastern Assam state deployed paramilitary troops Monday to quell clashes between Muslim migrants and tribal groups that have left almost 50 people dead. Some 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the violence that broke out Friday and swiftly spread through three districts of the state.
The death toll rose to 49 on Monday after eight people injured in fighting over the weekend died in hospital and nine more bodies were recovered from the violence-hit areas, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters. A senior Assam police official said an additional 2,100 paramilitary personnel had been sent to the affected areas, where curfews with shoot-on-sight orders have already been imposed. More from Agence France-Presse.
The War with the Taliban
With Britain’s commander in Afghanistan saying the war against the Taliban cannot be won, and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai inviting Taliban leader Mullah Omar back to Afghanistan to join the political process, the Western coalition is trying a new approach of reconciliation.
“We’re not going to win this war. It’s about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army,” Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith was quoted in the British media at the weekend as saying.
More from the Asia Times.
And a report on the war in Afghanistan from Al Jazeera: