Category: Defense

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – The sounds of explosions in this northeastern Sri Lankan port town were more muffled Wednesday than during an intense artillery attack a day earlier, but residents found them just as scary.“We had no sleep from midnight because of the explosions at a distance,” said housewife H.P. Bandumathi, […]

OSLO, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka peace mediator Norway on Wednesday called on the warring parties in Sri Lanka to immediately end all hostilities, which have claimed more than 100 lives in the past week.“We very strongly appeal to the two parties to stop the offensive operations immediately,” Norwegian Development Aid Minister Erik […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – The truce between Sri Lanka’s warring parties was stretched to breaking point Tuesday after one of the bloodiest days in the island’s recent history left at least 67 soldiers and Tamil rebels dead.The Tamil Tigers have been waging a violent secessionist campaign since the 1970s to secure an independent homeland […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan warplanes and artillery pounded Tiger rebel positions Tuesday after one of the bloodiest days in the island’s recent history left 67 combatants dead and made a mockery of a ceasefire.The Tamil Tigers have been waging a violent secessionist campaign since the 1970s to secure an independent homeland in […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ordering in of war planes and artillery to open a minor irrigation canal blocked by Tiger rebels is an over-reaction and a sign hawks are calling the shots, analysts said Tuesday. “Water is the life blood and very important, but could this not have been settled through negotiations […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Tiger rebels shelled Sri Lanka’s main navy base Tuesday, killing four sailors and wounding 30, while warplanes bombed guerrilla positions as a bloody battle for a disputed waterway entered a seventh day. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used 122-millimeter artillery to target the base at Trincomalee as […]

July 31, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels Monday accused Sri Lanka of violating their truce with a renewed offensive, but Nordic truce monitors said the guerrillas had no intention of quitting the ceasefire. The Swedish-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had lodged a formal complaint against […]

July 31, 2006 (AFP) – At least nine soldiers and 35 Tamil rebels were killed Monday in a major battle for control of a disputed waterway in northeastern Sri Lanka, defence officials said.Nine troopers, including an officer were killed in mortar bombs attacks while another 15 soldiers were wounded, officials said. The defence ministry in […]

July 31, 2006 (AFP) – Heavy fighting between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil Tiger rebels that killed at least 44 combatants Monday was unlikely to lead to full-scale war, the top Scandinavian truce monitor Ulf Henricsson said. The retired Swedish army general who leads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said a return to full-scale […]

July 31, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops and Tiger rebels Monday fought their bloodiest ground battle since a 2002 truce, with the military reporting at least 44 combatants killed, but monitors said it was still not full-scale war.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the three-decade-old Tamil separatist conflict. The army’s ground offensive […]