Category: Defense

March 9, 2009 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan military said Monday its troops have killed at least 150 Tamil Tigers in a weekend of fierce fighting inside the rebels’ shrinking fiefdom in the northeast of the island. Army spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said the Tigers, boxed into an area of less than 50 square kilometres (19 […]

March 8, 2009 (AFP) – More than 100 Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed in two days of fighting in Sri Lanka as they tried to break a military stranglehold, the defence ministry said Sunday.They died when the army beat back a series of counter-attacks by the Tiger rebels against advancing government forces in the […]

March 7, 2009 (AFP) – At least 32 Tamil Tigers were killed in heavy fighting in Sri Lanka’s embattled northeast, where government troops have cornered the rebels, the defence ministry said Saturday. “The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) end game is reaching its final phase,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that dozens […]

March 5, 2009 (AFP) – A local Red Cross employee was killed in Sri Lanka’s war zone, where troops have cornered Tamil Tiger rebels, an official said on Thursday. “One of our male workers was killed on Wednesday afternoon by shrapnel,” of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne said. Wijeratne […]

March 5, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday offered a new safe passage for thousands of civilians trapped in the island’s war zone as fresh fighting erupted, leaving at least 33 rebels dead, the defence ministry said.A pitched battle raged in the village of Chalai on Thursday, a day after a local Red Cross employee […]

PARIS, February 28, 2009 (AFP) – Thousands of Tamils marched in Paris on Saturday to denounce what they termed the Sri Lankan government’s genocide of the island’s ethnic minority in its bid to wipe out Tamil Tiger rebels.Government forces have pushed the Tigers into a narrow piece of land and say they hope to completely […]

March 1, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Sunday rejected fresh calls for a ceasefire with Tamil Tigers rebels as security forces hit stiff resistance in their efforts to secure final victory in the island’s ethnic conflict.Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said any ceasefire would be unnecessary if the Tigers accepted international appeals to surrender. “When the […]

February 28, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have entered the last urban area still in the hands of Tamil Tiger guerrillas after heavy fighting, the defence ministry said on Saturday.Soldiers entered Puthukkudiriruppu on Friday despite heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the defence ministry said in a statement. Government forces […]

February 26, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have killed at least 11 Tamil Tiger rebels in the battle for the last urban area still in the hands of the guerrillas, the defence ministry said Thursday.The deaths occurred Wednesday when soldiers pushed toward Puthukkudiriruppu, a town on a narrow strip of land in the northeast […]

February 25, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops has opened the main highway to the northern Jaffna peninsula for the first time in nearly two decades after wresting the route from rebel control, the military said Wednesday.Government troops operated a food convoy Tuesday along the A-9 highway that had been under rebel control since 1990, […]

CHENNAI, February 25, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil committed suicide by setting himself on fire to protest civilian casualties in Colombo’s military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels, Indian police said Wednesday.The Sri Lankan army claims to have driven back the rebels into less than 75 square kilometres (28 square miles) of jungle […]

February 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military said Tuesday it was trying to establish how the Tamil Tigers managed to buy light planes abroad, smuggle them onto the island and establish a rebel air force.According to the island’s defence ministry, the raid was the last air attack likely to be carried out by the […]