Category: Defense

TRINCOMALEE, February 18, 2009 (AFP) – Shopkeeper Subramaniam Sudaharan says he is lucky to be alive after his two teenage sons were shot dead as the family fled Sri Lanka’s increasingly brutal war zone.What was left of the devastated family — he, his wife and a younger boy — were among 440 war-wounded evacuated from […]

February 18, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government on Wednesday rejected fresh calls for a truce with Tamil Tigers as troops took another village from rebel control and concern mounted for civilians trapped in the war zone. Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the government was firmly committed to wiping out “terrorism” and described the demand […]

February 17, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cornered Tamil Tiger rebels have intensified conscription of child soldiers, some as young as 14, the United Nations agency for children said Tuesday.The Tigers have recruited more than 6,000 child soldiers since 2002, he added. UNICEF said in a statement that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) […]

February 17, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is considering a sea evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside its war zone, officials said on Tuesday as a government ally said there was a spike in non-combatant deaths.Some 80,000 civilians remain inside the northern Wanni region, where government troops have cornered the Tigers into […]

February 16, 2009 (AFP) – The Red Cross evacuated Monday a ferry load of 400 civilians wounded in fighting between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels. The injured and their accompanying relatives were shipped out of the conflict zone in the northeast of the island and taken for “further medical treatment,” International Committee […]

February 16, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger guerrillas have prevented tens of thousands of civilians from leaving Sri Lanka’s war zone and those trying to escape have been “shot and sometimes killed,” the United Nations said Monday. Tens of thousands of civilians in the rebel-held area were experiencing serious shortages of food, medicine, and clean […]

February 15, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government hoped Tamil Tiger rebels could be defeated in days, but both sides are now warning bloodier battles may lie ahead — and civilians are likely to pay a heavy price. Security forces have cornered the retreating Tigers in the north of the island after over three bloody […]

February 15, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s elusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is still on the island and has been preparing his Tamil Tiger fighters to launch last-ditch counter attacks, a news report said Sunday.Prabhakaran, 54, and his eldest son Charles Anthony have blended in with about 100,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone, the […]

February 14, 2009 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels lobbed a grenade and opened fire at a bus transporting civilians out of Sri Lanka’s war zone on Saturday, killing one woman and wounding 13, the defence ministry said.Sri Lanka has resisted calls for a “no-fire period,” amid claims from relief agencies that a “humanitarian catastrophe” […]

February 14, 2009 (AFP) – Four civilians died when artillery shells fell on a home for the elderly inside a demarcated safe area within Sri Lanka’s war zone, a doctor said Saturday. Many elderly people were also injured in the shelling on Friday in the northeast Puttumattalan area, said T. Satyamurthy, a doctor working out […]

Feb 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has ratified a proposal to set up a South Asian development fund mooted at a summit of regional leaders last year, a senior government minister said. Sri Lanka will make a contribution of 3,563.6 million rupees for the fund of which 500 million would be paid this year, […]

February 12, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops killed 28 Tamil rebels and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition in their latest push for victory in the island’s drawn-out ethnic conflict, the government said Thursday.The Red Cross carried out a similar sea evacuation of 240 patients on Tuesday, saying the group had been stranded […]