Category: Defense

January 21, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military Wednesday asked civilians living in the last remaining rebel-held areas in the island’s northeast to move into a declared safe zone ahead of a major showdown.The army said in a statement that it had declared a “safe zone” for tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the […]

January 20, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s inaction after a series of assaults and killings of journalists has left a “dark stain” on the government’s credibility, the International Press Institute warned Tuesday.The media rights group condemned the “culture of impunity and indifference” shown by the government after a senior editor was murdered and a privately […]

January 20, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy Tuesday destroyed four Tamil Tiger boats and killed 16 guerrillas trying to escape as government soldiers close in on the rebels’ last base in the northeast, the military said.Officials said the pre-dawn naval battle erupted in waters off Mullaittivu, a jungle and lagoon area and the last […]

January 19, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s top Tamil Tiger, who inspired hundreds of followers to stage suicide bombings in the fight for a separate state, is facing his biggest challenge yet and is fast running out of options. To his followers, Velupillai Prabhakaran is seen as a “Sun God” who formed a formidable and […]

January 19, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have found the wreckage of an aircraft near an air strip captured from Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the island, military officials said on Monday.The wreckage was found on Sunday in the jungles around Mullaittivu, the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam […]

January 18, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers are threatened with “extinction” following a massive military drive against them, but a political solution will be crucial to end long-standing Tamil grievances, observers say. The Tigers’ de facto state in the north of the island has been crumbling rapidly.They lost their political capital Kilinochchi earlier […]

January 18, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government troops have almost completely cornered the Tamil Tigers in their northeastern jungle base and the rebels’ leader may have already fled the island, the army chief said.The Sri Lankan army chief, who narrowly escaped assassination in a Tamil Tiger suicide bombing in April 2005, said he hoped […]

January 17, 2009 (AFP) – Some 170 people have fled rebel-controlled areas in northern Sri Lanka as fresh fighting erupted across several fronts, the military said Saturday. A massive assault by Sri Lankan troops has left the Tigers cornered in their military stronghold in the northeastern coastal district of Mullaittivu. Sri Lanka has poured a […]

January 16, 2009 (AFP) – Intense fighting in northern Sri Lanka has forced tens of thousands of homeless civilians to flee areas controlled by the encircled Tamil Tiger rebels, the Red Cross said Thursday.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported “massive displacement” of civilians — many of them having already been forced to […]

January 15, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have captured another air strip used by Tamil Tiger guerrillas to launch airborne attacks with light planes, the defence ministry said Thursday.The makeshift jungle runway is the fifth of its type to be overrun by government soldiers who are rapidly advancing on areas in the north once […]

January 13, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have captured more territory from Tamil Tigers in fierce battles around the rebels’ last stronghold in the northeast of the island, the defence ministry said Tuesday.The Tigers said a shell had also hit a hospital building and two people there sustained minor injuries. Claims by both sides […]

January 14, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have established total control over the northern peninsula of Jaffna Wednesday after flushing out the last remaining pockets of rebel resistance, defence officials said. “The Tigers have not specified a place where the Red Cross can hand over the bodies to them,” a hospital official said. “Because […]