Category: Defense

May 14, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government on Thursday rejected international calls for a halt to the war against Tamil Tiger rebels, hours after the UN Security Council called for civilian lives to be spared.“We are not going to succumb to international pressure to stop the offensive,” Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told reporters. […]

May 14, 2009 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan military on Thursday accused Tamil Tigers of using phosphorus bombs as part of their last-ditch attempt to face off against a massive onslaught by government troops.A military statement said the once-powerful rebel force, now surrounded in a four square kilometre (1.5 square mile) patch of jungle on […]

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2009 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her British counterpart David Miliband called Tuesday on Sri Lankans to stop fighting immediately and allow trapped civilians to escape the conflict.During a visit to Sri Lanka late last month, Miliband and Kouchner urged the government to stop the fighting with the […]

May 13, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers put up stiff resistance to advancing government troops on Wednesday, in heavy fighting that saw the beleaguered rebels launch a wave of suicide attacks, the military said.The clashes came as both sides in the brutal conflict faced renewed charges of war crimes, with the United Nations […]

May 12, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have made fresh advances into the small patch of territory held by the Tamil Tigers, the defence ministry said Tuesday.A statement said government forces advanced 800 metres (yards) during fighting on Monday, cutting deeper into the roughly four square kilometres (1.5 square miles) of coastal jungle in […]

May 11, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Monday protested against a United Nations statement that said a large number of civilians had been killed in a “bloodbath” in the northeast where troops are fighting Tamil rebels.Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said the government had summoned UN representative Amin Awad to receive a formal protest. “We […]

CHEDDIKULAM, May 10, 2009 (AFP) – The X-ray shows a bullet lodged next to the heart of a Tamil man, one of tens of thousands who have flooded out of Sri Lanka’s northeast to escape the war with the Tamil Tigers.“He said he was shot in the chest six months ago.But we can’t remove it […]

May 8, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Friday reduced the size of the “safe zone” for civilians trapped in the island’s northeast where government forces are leading a final assault against Tiger rebels.Military spokesman brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the civilian safe zone (CSZ) was made smaller as fighting was raging on the outskirts. The […]

May 9, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops killed at least 35 Tamil Tiger rebels during heavy clashes just outside the newly demarcated “safety zone” for war-trapped civilians, the defence ministry said on Saturday.Security forces who captured a mud embankment built by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday moved deeper into the […]

May 7, 2009 (AFP) – The president of Sri Lanka said Thursday the island’s long-running war against the separatist Tamil Tigers was “rapidly” nearing its end. Sri Lanka’s main Tamil moderate party meanwhile demanded an immediate truce, saying a final assault against Tiger rebels would inevitably lead to more civilian deaths. The Tamil United Liberation […]

May 8, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan soldiers have overrun another Tamil Tiger defence line standing between government troops and the small strip of territory still held by the ethnic rebels, the defence ministry said Friday. In heavy fighting late Thursday, troops captured a mud embankment built by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) […]

May 7, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers are using suicide bombers to hold back government forces who are close to overrunning the last patch of rebel-held territory, the military said Thursday.The Tigers have deployed hundreds of suicide bombers to devastating effect in the past 20 years, claiming several high-profile victims, including the then […]