Category: Defense

NEW DELHI, April 9, 2009 (AFP) – Indian security officials have warned that the ruling party’s leader and her family could be targeted by Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers ahead of this month’s national polls, a report said.Her son, federal MP and Congress general secretary Rahul, was slated to address rallies in southern India over the […]

April 4, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops advancing on the last remaining pockets of rebel resistance killed at least 111 Tamil Tigers in separate ground and sea clashes on Saturday, the military said. His visit to Sri Lanka came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon again urged Tamil rebel leaders to allow trapped civilians to […]

April 5, 2009 (AFP) – At least 420 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in three days of clashes in northeast Sri Lanka, the military said on Sunday, as troops moved to wipe out the guerrillas after decades of conflict. Tens of thousands of civilians would soon be rescued from the no-fire zone, army chief Lieutenant […]

UNITED NATIONS, April 3, 2009 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Tamil rebel leaders to allow trapped civilians to move freely out of the conflict area of northern Sri Lanka.Earlier Friday, Sri Lankan troops captured a key village from the Tamil Tigers after heavy fighting that left at least 44 guerrillas dead […]

April 3, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces captured a key village from Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday after heavy fighting that left at least 44 guerrillas dead, a military spokesman said. At the height of their power in the mid-1990s, the Tigers controlled more than a third of the total land mass of […]

April 2, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government forces have cut off an essential supply route to Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in the jungle, the defence ministry said Thursday.The Tiger guerrillas are battling to hold back a military assault that has pushed them into a 21 square kilometre (eight square mile) patch of land in […]

April 2, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Thursday it had summoned Norway’s envoy to complain about the Nordic country’s alleged role in arranging a telephone conversation between Tamil Tiger rebels and a UN official. Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said the government voiced its “displeasure” over the call supposedly arranged last week between UN humanitarian […]

April 1, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s eldest son was wounded in battle against Sri Lankan security forces, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said on Wednesday.Prabhakaran’s location is uncertain, though the Tigers say their leader is still with his men as they try to stave off defeat at the hands of […]

March 31, 2009 (AFP) – Two months after President Mahinda Rajapakse vowed that the Tamil Tiger rebels would be defeated within days, fighting rages on in Sri Lanka at the cost of escalating military, rebel and civilian lives.Government forces who were advancing into Liberation Tigers’ of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory at the rate of more […]

March 31, 2009 (AFP) – In response to pressure from the United Nations Sri Lanka withdrew its troops from camps for thousands of civilians who have escaped the island’s vicious civil war, a minister said Tuesday.About 61,000 people who have fled the combat zone and are housed in a dozen “welfare camps” will instead be […]

March 30, 2009 (AFP) – At least 24 Tamil Tiger rebels and a navy sailor were killed in a major sea battle off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast on Monday, a navy spokesman said. Government forces sank four boats of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) off the coast of Mullaittivu, spokesman D.K. P. Dassanayake […]

NEW DELHI, March 28, 2009 (AFP) – A senior European official said Saturday that aid groups want to help Sri Lanka meet the humanitarian needs of civilians in the country’s battle zone and are “not against” the government.Sri Lanka hit back earlier this week against human rights and aid groups, accusing them of supporting the […]