Category: Politics

Oct 24, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s top defence official vowed Wednesday to push ahead with operations against the Tamil Tiger rebels, who launched a devastating attack on a key air force base earlier this week.Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told the government’s main website that the deadly raid by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam […]

COLOMBO, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan defence officials said Tuesday that a major Tamil Tiger suicide attack against a key military base may have been helped by security lapses during the screening of a popular TV talent contest. A rebel “Black Tiger” suicide squad of 21 on Monday infiltrated the Anuradhapura army and […]

Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military made key changes in its command on Tuesday, a day after the Tamil Tigers infiltrated an air base and destroyed several aircraft, officials said.President Mahinda Rajapakse appointed Major General Sanath Karunaratne Overall Operations Commander in the north-central region of the Anuradhapura area, where Tamil Tiger rebels devastated […]

Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – An elite Tamil Tiger suicide squad backed by light aircraft on Monday attacked a key Sri Lankan military base in an unprecedented ground and air assault, killing at least five soldiers. The rebels said 21 members of their “Black Tiger” unit and two light aircraft struck the Anuradhapura air base […]

Oct 22, 2007 (LBO) – Tamil Tiger rebels launched a pre-dawn air and ground assault on a Sri Lankan air force base on Monday, damaging at least two helicopter gunships, military officials and news agency reports said.An air force spokesman said two Mi-24 helicopter gunships were damaged in the Tiger attack. At least eight air […]

Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – Five Sri Lankan airmen were killed as Tamil Tiger rebels launched an unprecedented air and land attack on a northern military base, officials and a pro-rebel website said on Monday.A 2002 truce brokered by Norway began to unravel in December 2005 and since then, thousands of people have killed and […]

Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels said Monday they had used members of an elite suicide squad to stage their first-ever coordinated ground and air assault against a key military base.Military sources said the bigger loss for the security forces apart from the fatalities was the destruction of a Beechcraft aircraft […]

Oct 22, 2007 (LBO) – Up to nine Sri Lankan servicemen and 20 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed during the Tiger air and ground attack on the Anuradhapura Sri Lanka Air Force airbase in the early hours of Monday, military officials said Two Mi-24 air force attack helicopters were badly damaged in the Tiger attack […]

COLOMBO, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) – More than a dozen suspected Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in fresh fighting in the island’s embattled north, the defence ministry said Saturday.The military fired at a group of Tamil Tiger rebels who tried to break through the northern defence lines in Mannar on Saturday, killing eight, it said. […]

COLOMBO, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) – Experts on counter terrorism have urged Sri Lanka’s government to capitalise on recent victories against the Tamil Tigers and try to hammer out a political solution to the long-running ethnic war. Earlier this year, government forces managed to eject the ethnic rebels from their last stronghold in the east […]

Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – An international counter-terrorism expert Thursday urged Sri Lanka’s warring parties to return to the negotiating table to end decades of bloodshed.Gerard Chaliand said Colombo’s military push was not the answer to the rebels’ violent campaign for autonomy for minority Tamils in the island’s north and east. “I believe generally, terrorist […]

Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military said Thursday its troops killed 41 suspected Tamil Tigers in renewed clashes in the island’s north, although the rebels said some of the victims were civilians.The Sri Lankan navy fired early Thursday at a cluster of Tamil Tiger boats off the northwest coast. They recovered an abandoned […]