Category: Defense

CHENNAI, February 22, 2009 (AFP) – An ethnic Tamil activist committed suicide by setting himself on fire in protest against the war in Sri Lanka, Indian police said on Sunday. Siva Prakasam, 55, set himself ablaze during an anti-war rally on Saturday in Chennai, capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, a police spokesman […]

February 21, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down 10 civilians, including two children, and wounded five more in eastern Sri Lanka on Saturday, the defence ministry said. Gunmen from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) overran the village of Kirimetiya on Saturday evening and began shooting at residents, the ministry said. “The […]

GENEVA, February 21, 2009 (AFP) – Nearly 1,000 demonstrators in the Swiss capital of Bern called Saturday for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka and for Switzerland to do more to secure it, the ATS agency reported. The rally in front of Bern’s federal palace came one day after at least 14,000 […]

February 22, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces killed at least 65 Tamil Tigers in a week of intense fighting that further reduced the territory under rebel control, the military said on Sunday. The Tigers have been driven back into just 73 square kilometres (28 square miles) of jungle, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, […]

February 21, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels who staged a suicide air raid on Sri Lanka’s capital used a pocket torch to navigate, but their planes were packed with high explosives, military officials said Saturday.One of the Tigers’ two light aircraft was shot down before it could hit its intended target — the main […]

February 20, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tigers carried out a kamikaze-style attack in Sri Lanka’s capital on Friday night, smashing a light aircraft into the main tax building, killing two people and wounding 50, officials said. Sri Lanka’s air force said anti aircraft guns shot down one of the light aircraft that had flown over […]

February 21, 2009 (AFP) – A kamikaze-style attack by Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers on the capital Colombo may have been a last ditch attempt by the rebels to delay their defeat after 37 years of fighting, the government said.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) smashed a light aircraft into Colombo’s main tax office late […]

NEW DELHI, February 21, 2009 (AFP) – The Indian Air Force was placed on alert on the southern coast of the country Saturday following a deadly Tamil Tiger air raid on the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, a report said.The Press Trust of India news agency quoted air force sources as saying coastal radar and air […]

February 20, 2009 (AFP) – Security forces captured diving equipment and underwater “scooters” used by suicide bombers after heavy fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels in the island’s northeast, the defence ministry said on Friday.Troops seized the equipment after five hours of fighting at the village of Ampalavanpokkanai on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement. […]

February 20, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces seized another village from Tamil Tiger rebels, the government said Friday, as international concern mounted about the plight of civilians caught in the shrinking war zone.Government forces established control over the village of Ampalavanpokkanai in the district of Mullaittivu on Thursday afternoon following heavy fighting, the […]

Feb 21, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo was blacked out Friday night and air defences were activated against a possible attack by Tamil Tiger guerrilla aircraft, residents and officials said. Searchlights were activated in the capital, and motorists were told to douse their lights by policemen, shortly after 9.00 pm local time, residents […]

Feb 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has downed a Tamil Tiger light aircraft near an air base and an international airport north of Colombo following a raid where another aircraft attacked the headquarters of the island’s revenue office, the military said. Colombo was blacked out shortly after 9.00 pm Friday after the military detected […]