Category: Defense

July 30, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Sunday intensified artillery and mortar bomb attacks against Tamil Tigers and captured an area where the guerrillas had blocked an irrigation canal, a minister said. Backed by artillery and four days of air strikes, security forces moved to the Maavilaru water reservoir, Policy Planning Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said. […]

TYRE, Lebanon, July 30, 2006 (AFP) – Vasanthi Darmadasa was sweeping her employers’ garden when her life changed.An Israeli bomb came thundering out of the sky, destroying the house and killing everyone there — except her.“I was thrown to the ground by the shockwave. I didn’t feel anything in my legs and I did not […]

July 29, 2006 (AFP) – A second batch of Sri Lankan migrant workers returned home Saturday from Lebanon in line with an evacuation plan backed by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), officials said.The group of 335 workers were flown on a chartered Sri Lankan Airlines plane from Damascus, IOM spokeswoman Ranjitha Balasubramanyam said. More […]

July 29, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tamil Tiger positions for a fourth straight day Saturday, killing at least eight more rebels, the guerrillas said, as their threadbare truce came under more strain.The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said Israeli-built Kfir jets bombed and destroyed a conference center of the guerrillas deep inside rebel-held […]

July 29, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s threadbare truce came under further pressure Saturday following decisions by Finland and Denmark to remove their monitors as Tamil rebels and government troops braced for a showdown. Finland was the first to announce the withdrawal of their nationals from the Swedish-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in line […]

July 28, 2006 (AFP) – At least six rebels died and eight people were wounded when Sri Lankan warplanes attacked a Tamil Tiger camp, a rebel leader said Friday as both sides traded artillery fire. Three civilians were among the injured during the air raids over Trincomalee district on Thursday, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam […]

HELSINKI, July 28, 2006 (AFP) – Finland said Friday it would recall its ceasefire monitors from Sri Lanka, sparking fears of increased violence between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels on the wartorn island.The Finnish foreign ministry announced it would withdraw its 10 observers on security grounds before a September 1 deadline set […]

July 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ceasefire hung by a thread Friday as Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces traded artillery fire and Finland announced its truce observers would leave the country.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the three-decade-old Tamil separatist conflict. Sri Lankan war planes struck a Tamil Tiger base Friday, […]

July 27, 2006 (AFP) – Warplanes bombed suspected Tamil Tiger positions in northeast Sri Lanka on Thursday for a second day after the rebels allegedly blocked an irrigation canal, a military official said.“The bombing raids were over the northeastern region,” the military official said, adding that three Israeli-built Kfir jets were used in the offensive […]

COLOMBO, July 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a clandestine airfield being built by Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday, the second day of bombardment against the guerrillas, the defence ministry said. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had cleared a jungle patch just north of the district of Trincomalee and were building […]

July 26, 2006 (AFP) – Peace broker Norway will launch a fresh bid to save Sri Lanka’s troubled peace process ahead of a September 1 deadline set by Tiger rebels for European truce monitors to quit, officials said Wednesday. Special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer will arrive on the island in the “early part of August” to […]