COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, April 30, 2007: Six persons including a Hindu priest were killed when the Sri Lankan Navy stormed a Hindu temple on an island off the northern Jaffna peninsula Sunday. The military claimed five of them were rebels belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had taken cover inside the temple and attacked the navy, which arrived at the location to carry out a search operation. But the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said that six persons were killed when the navy carried out a search operation following an attack on a group of sailors on the previous day where a naval officer was killed on Kayts island, 420 km north of the capital. There was no independent confirmation about the incident. Fighting in the north and eastern parts of Sri Lanka has left over 4,000 dead and more than 200,000 displaced during the past 15 months.
A daily summary of world news for Hindus and non-Hindus alike