Category: Defense

July 30, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka plans to offer education and vocational training for about 20,000 former Tamil Tiger rebels, including child soldiers and operatives trained as suicide bombers, an official said Thursday.Nearly 300,000 people who were displaced by the ethnic conflict are still held in camps under military guard. The government insists that […]

July 19, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have recovered a submarine-type craft built by Tamil Tiger guerrillas in an area where they fought their final battle two months ago, the military said Sunday.The craft was found on Saturday submerged about 500 metres (yards) off the coast of Vellamullivaikal in the district of Mullaittivu, the […]

July 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s new navy commander said he wants to expand the fleet and increase troop strength to better protect the island from maritime threats and ensure the Tamil Tiger insurgency does not recur.Thisara Samarasinghe said that although the Tigers were defeated in May, winning the war did not mean the […]

July 15, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s new army chief took up his post Wednesday vowing to “re-motivate” his 200,000-strong force and build a peacetime military following the crushing of Tamil Tiger rebels.Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, 50, said his first priority would be the military’s new role in supporting a massive reconstruction effort in areas […]

July 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has cancelled orders for 200 million US dollars of military hardware and ammunition from China, after a 30-year war with Tamil Tiger separatists ended, a top official said.Fonseka said soldiers in areas like northern Jaffna found it difficult to take leave at the current strength. “If we want […]

MUMBAI, July 13, 2009 (AFP) – In 1979, Don Ward opened a small club in London to provide a stage for the best of Britain’s undiscovered comic talent.After 30 successful years, he now wants to do the same in India. Ward is taking The Comedy Store out of Britain for the first time, opening a […]

WELIKANDA (AFP) – They begin each day saluting the national flag of the country they had vowed to defeat or die trying.Gone are the cyanide capsules that, like all Tamil Tiger rebels, they had worn around their necks for use if captured by the Sri Lankan military. In their place hang religious symbols — a […]

July 5, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan soldier was shot dead by a Tamil rebel in the island’s east, the first military fatality after the crushing of the guerrilla leadership in May, the army said on Sunday.A Tiger rebel grabbed the gun of a soldier and opened fire as he tried to search a […]

June 24, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is hosting a South Asia workshop organised with the United States to prevent terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons or trafficking in nuclear materials, the foreign ministry said.The workshop, on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540 dealing with non-state actors and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), […]

June 21, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is pouring more troops into former rebel-held areas in the east of the island to hunt down remnants of the Tamil Tigers following their defeat in the north, a state-run weekly said Sunday.The Tigers have admitted that they lost their top leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in a final battle […]

June 15, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have recovered the first submarine believed to have been used by the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said Monday.Troops found the 24-foot (7.2-metre) submersible on the coast of the northeastern district of Mullaittivu, where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were defeated last month, ending […]