Sri Lanka Tigers used torch for air attack: military

February 21, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels who staged a suicide air raid on Sri Lanka’s capital used a pocket torch to navigate, but their planes were packed with high explosives, military officials said Saturday.One of the Tigers’ two light aircraft was shot down before it could hit its intended target — the main […]

Tamil Tiger air raid kills 2 injures 50

February 20, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tigers carried out a kamikaze-style attack in Sri Lanka’s capital on Friday night, smashing a light aircraft into the main tax building, killing two people and wounding 50, officials said. Sri Lanka’s air force said anti aircraft guns shot down one of the light aircraft that had flown over […]

Tamil Tiger raid a desperate bid to delay defeat: govt

February 21, 2009 (AFP) – A kamikaze-style attack by Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers on the capital Colombo may have been a last ditch attempt by the rebels to delay their defeat after 37 years of fighting, the government said.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) smashed a light aircraft into Colombo’s main tax office late […]

Indian Air Force on alert after Colombo raid: report

NEW DELHI, February 21, 2009 (AFP) – The Indian Air Force was placed on alert on the southern coast of the country Saturday following a deadly Tamil Tiger air raid on the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, a report said.The Press Trust of India news agency quoted air force sources as saying coastal radar and air […]

Sri Lanka troops capture Tiger diving gear: military

February 20, 2009 (AFP) – Security forces captured diving equipment and underwater “scooters” used by suicide bombers after heavy fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels in the island’s northeast, the defence ministry said on Friday.Troops seized the equipment after five hours of fighting at the village of Ampalavanpokkanai on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement. […]

Sri Lanka troops capture another Tiger village: military

February 20, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces seized another village from Tamil Tiger rebels, the government said Friday, as international concern mounted about the plight of civilians caught in the shrinking war zone.Government forces established control over the village of Ampalavanpokkanai in the district of Mullaittivu on Thursday afternoon following heavy fighting, the […]

Sri Lanka capital blacked out against Tiger air intruders

Feb 21, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo was blacked out Friday night and air defences were activated against a possible attack by Tamil Tiger guerrilla aircraft, residents and officials said. Searchlights were activated in the capital, and motorists were told to douse their lights by policemen, shortly after 9.00 pm local time, residents […]

Sri Lanka air defences down Tiger aircraft

Feb 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has downed a Tamil Tiger light aircraft near an air base and an international airport north of Colombo following a raid where another aircraft attacked the headquarters of the island’s revenue office, the military said. Colombo was blacked out shortly after 9.00 pm Friday after the military detected […]

Top UN official to visit restive Sri Lanka

UNITED NATIONS, February 18, 2009 (AFP) – UN humanitarian chief John Holmes is to pay a three-day visit to strife-torn Sri Lanka later this week to review the humanitarian situation, the world body said Wednesday. During his previous visit to Sri Lanka in August 2007, Holmes described the island as one of the world’s most […]

‘s war zone: running the gauntlet

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 […]

India ready to help evacuation of Sri Lankan Tamil civillians

NEW DELHI, February 18, 2009 (AFP) – India said Wednesday it was ready to help evacuate tens of thousands of Tamil civilians caught in the crossfire between Sri Lankan troops and Tiger rebels in the northeast of the island.Indian troops, sent in by ex-Congress premier Rajiv Gandhi to enforce a peace deal on the island, […]

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