Category: Politics

November 17, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops on Monday captured two more strategic towns from Tamil Tiger rebels following fierce fighting in the north of the island, the defence ministry said.Security forces battling to dismantle the rebels’ mini-state entered the town of Mankulam, located just south of the Tamil Tiger political capital of Kilinochchi, […]

November 16, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka stepped up air attacks against suspected rebel targets in the island’s north Sunday, a day after ground troops re-captured a highly strategic town, the defence ministry said.Mi-24 helicopter gunships and fighter jets were deployed to pound defence lines of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the […]

November 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces on Saturday recaptured the strategically important northern town of Pooneryn from Tamil Tiger rebels after months of heavy fighting, the defence ministry said. Pooneryn had been a Tiger stronghold since 1993 when the rebels dislodged the main military base there. The rebels had used the coastal […]

November 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president on Saturday asked Tamil Tigers to surrender after troops claimed re-taking a strategically-important town from the separatist guerrillas following months of heavy fighting.President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation that security forces had wrested control of the town of Pooneryn and the main […]

November 13, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops on Thursday wrested control of two coastal villages from Tamil Tiger rebels after a series of pitched battles, the military said.The fishing settlements of Devil’s Point and Vallaipadu on the island’s northwestern shore were used by the rebels to smuggle arms from south India and launch attacks […]

November 12, 2008 (AFP) – At least nine Tamil Tiger rebels were killed as Sri Lankan troops fought pitched battles in the island’s north, the defence ministry said Wednesday.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) endured a “heavy beating” as troops advanced towards Kilinochchi, the rebels’ political capital, the ministry said. It said the bodies […]

November 11, 2008 (AFP) – Government forces in Sri Lanka have wrestled control of a small town from Tamil Tiger rebels in an ongoing military offensive, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.Troops fighting to secure a strategic road along the coast to the northern peninsula of Jaffna have faced stiff resistance from the Liberation Tigers […]

MADHU, November 9, 2008 (AFP) – One of Sri Lanka’s holiest Catholic shrines stands idle and neglected — an unlikely victim of a decades-long internal conflict that the government says it is close to winning.Standing two feet (60 centimetres) tall, the 450-year-old pale yellow statue of the Virgin Mary, draped in golden robes, is especially […]

November 9, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops were close to capturing a key road to the northern peninsula of Jaffna after months of heavy fighting, the defence ministry said Sunday.Heavily armed units have pushed along the coastal road to Jaffna, which had been cut off from the rest of the island by Tamil Tiger […]

November 8, 2008 (AFP) – Helicopter gunships launched a rare night assault against a suspected Tamil Tiger base located on a small islet off Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, the defence ministry said on Saturday.The air force Mi-24 gunships attacked a “gathering point” of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Palaitivu, just on the […]