Category: Defense

April 14, 2008 (AFP) – Security forces smashed through defences of Tamil separatists in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least five rebels as the country marked the traditional new year, the defence ministry said Monday.Government troops captured eight bunkers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Jaffna peninsula on Sunday, the day […]

April 13, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka marked its traditional new year Sunday with government forces and Tamil separatists locked in fierce combat resulting in losses on both sides, defence officials said.Security forces pounded Tamil Tiger positions in the rebel-held northern Wanni region and troops smashed bunkers belonging to rebels in the Jaffna peninsula, further […]

April 11, 2008 (AFP) – At least 26 Tamil Tiger rebels, two soldiers and a civilian have been killed in fighting across Sri Lanka’s northern districts, the defence ministry said Friday.Security forces smashed rebel bunkers and exchanged artillery with Tamil Tiger guerrillas in two days of fighting, while air force jets bombed a suspected Tiger […]

April 8, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s elite police commandos shot dead at least two soldiers and a civilian in a case of mistaken identity during a search in the restive east of the island, police said.The Special Task Force commandos opened fire at a group of men they believed were members of the Tamil […]

April 9, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s police arrested four people and seized a large quantity of explosives that could have been used in a suicide bombing, officials said Wednesday.Investigators found about 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of plastic explosives and grenades in a location in central Kandy district on Tuesday, a police official said. “There […]

April 06, 2008 (LBO) – A senior Sri Lanka minister has been killed in a Tamil Tiger suicide blast Sunday morning, north of Colombo, that has left at least 10 people dead, police and officials said. Highways minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle was caught in the blast in the town of Weliveriya north of Colombo in a […]

April 6, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s highways minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was killed in a bomb attack outside Colombo on Sunday, a government official here said.The minister was presiding over traditional New Year celebrations in the town of Weliveriya, north of Colombo, when the blast occurred.At least 10 others were killed by the powerful bomb.

Jan 11, 2008 (LBO) – A bomb exploded in the main railway station in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, injuring one person, police said.The bomb which was kept on a platform under a stairway, went off around 7.30 pm local time witnesses said. Train services resumed at the station less than an hour after the blast. […]

COLOMBO, April 4, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a key Tamil Tiger naval base in the island’s northeast Wednesday, the defence ministry said.Israeli-built Kfir jets pounded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam base at Puthukudirrippu, a ministry spokesman said. There was no immediate reaction from the Tigers. Sri Lankan warplanes have been routinely […]

Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) – Troops killed over 50 Tamil rebels Thursday when the guerrillas staged a fresh attack on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, officials said, a day after the president said the door was still open for peace talks. -updated- Troops beat back the attempt by the rebels to overrun their defences and killed […]

Aug 17 (AFP) – Ceasefire monitors in eastern Sri Lanka were forced to flee after they were nearly hit by heavy shelling in clashes between Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces, an official said Thursday.The six-member team left its base in the eastern port town of Trincomalee which has been the scene of fierce clashes […]

OTTOWA, Aug 15, 2006 (AFP) – Canada called Tuesday for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and a resumption of peace negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers. “Canada believes that there can be no military solution to this lengthy conflict,” Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement. “We call […]