COLOMBO: The Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF), Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke, has said that the bombing missions in the just concluded war against the Tamil Tiger rebels were carried out by Sri Lankan and not foreign pilots.This remark in the Sinhalese language programme ‘Thulawa’ of the state-owned ITN TV is significant in the context of rumours persistently spread by the Tamil Tigers that the Sri Lankan air force was bombing accurately this time only because its planes were flown by Pakistan Air Force pilots. Air Marshal Goonetilleke said that the SLAF had attacked 1,900 LTTE hideouts and meeting points, and destroyed 52 large Sea Tiger vessels and several Sea Tiger hideouts in the just concluded Eelam War IV. The commander clarified that the battle against the LTTE fought by Sri Lankan, and not foreign pilots, countering the LTTE propaganda that Pakistani pilots were doing the sorties as the bombing was remarkably accurate.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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