Category: Defense

Apr. 27 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday set aside one million dollars in aid for thousands of people who fled their homes after an upsurge in violence in the northeast. President Mahinda Rajapakse named a retired naval officer to head a “Presidential Task Force” to allocate the relief money to displaced civilians, an official […]

Apr. 27, 2006 (AFP) – At least five security personnel were killed in three separate Claymore mine attacks in northern Sri Lanka Thursday, the military said. Three soldiers were killed and two wounded in Mannar district while two sailors riding a motorcycle were blown up in the Kayts islet, a military official said. He said […]

Apr.26 (AFP) – “Black Tiger” suicide squads, secular Hindus driven by loyalty to the Tamil cause rather than religion, have been sowing terror in Sri Lanka for over two decades.The audacious bombing Tuesday inside Sri Lanka’s main military base, in which a female member of the Tamil Tigers feigning pregnancy blew herself up, was just […]

Apr. 26 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers, blamed for a suicide attack against a top military official that threatens to pitch the island back into civil war, is one of the world’s deadliest guerrilla groups.For Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran the most lethal weapon in his armoury is the young […]

OSLO, Apr.26 (AFP) – The main mediator in the Sri Lankan conflict, Erik Solheim of Norway, on Wednesday condemned the flare-up of violence on the war-torn island but said he was optimistic that it would end shortly.Government forces have carried out coordinated air, sea and land attacks against rebel positions in the restive northeast since […]

Apr. 26 (AFP) – Escalating violence between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil rebels left at least 15 civilians dead and 15,000 Tamil villagers fleeing for their lives, reports from both sides said Wednesday.Three people died and 13 were wounded when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired mortar bombs against a naval detachment in […]

Apr. 26 (AFP) – Air strikes, mortar attacks, a suicide bombing in the heart of Colombo — while it may seem Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka’s government are beating war drums, they are in fact preparing to return to truce talks, some analysts said Wednesday. The fact that the government has recommitted itself to […]

Apr. 26 (AFP) – Peace broker Norway expressed hope Wednesday that Sri Lanka will retreat from the brink of full-scale war even as 18 more people were killed in escalated air strikes aimed at avenging rebel attacks and thousands of Tamil villagers were fleeing for their lives. Top peace envoy Erik Solheim said Oslo was […]

WASHINGTON, Apr. 25 (AFP) – The United States on Tuesday condemned the attack against an army headquarters in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo and called the suicide blast a provocation by the Tamil Tigers. “This is clearly an act of terror, which we condemn,” the State Department’s deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. “It is an […]