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/ 22 October 2008
Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels struck back against a major government offensive on Wednesday with suicide attacks on merchant ships.
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/ 20 October 2008
The Sri Lankan government admitted on Monday scores of its troops had been killed or injured in fierce fighting with the Tamil Tigers.
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/ 10 October 2008
Sri Lanka troops backed by fighter jets have moved deeper into Tamil Tiger territory in the island’s north, killing 39 rebels.
Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday accused the Sri Lankan government of launching a ”genocidal war” against northern Tamils.
A Sri Lankan suicide bomber killed 23 people at a historic tourist town on Monday, including a retired army general.
The expected fall of the Tamil Tigers’ capital would mark the separatists’ biggest loss in 13 years, but analysts say the conflict is far from over.
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/ 27 September 2008
Sri Lanka’s military killed at least 66 Tamil Tiger insurgents during a siege of the rebel capital and in air and ground assaults, the military says.
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/ 22 September 2008
Sri Lanka’s military battled towards the Tamil Tigers’ headquarters in the north of the island and killed 59 killed insurgents.
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/ 9 September 2008
The UN says it is withdrawing personnel from Sri Lanka’s embattled north, following a government order to quit ahead of a military offensive.
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/ 3 September 2008
Battles between Sri Lanka’s military and separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas killed dozens of people, the military said on Wednesday.
At least 74 people were killed during a Sri Lankan military push to take the symbolic capital of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
Sri Lankan troops killed 115 Tamil Tiger rebels in weekend fighting in the far north of the island, the military said on Monday.
Sri Lankan fighter jets bombed rebel positions on Thursday while troops captured a rebel-held area, killing at least 25 militants, the military said.
Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday declared a ceasefire with the military during a 10-day meeting of South Asian leaders starting this week.
Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday it has killed dozens more Tamil Tigers in the latest ground and sea clashes.
Sri Lanka says it has wiped out two-thirds of the Tamil Tiger military capability and the decades-old conflict with the rebels is at its tail-end.
Sri Lankan fighter jets destroyed two Tamil Tiger boats and bombed a rebel heavy-weapon deployment site in the country’s north-east on Friday.
Fresh fighting in Sri Lanka’s north has killed 28 Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers, the military said on Tuesday.
Sri Lankan security forces shot dead at another 32 Tamil Tiger rebels and lost two of their own soldiers in fresh fighting in the island’s north.
Sri Lanka security forces shot dead at least 26 Tamil Tiger rebels in fresh fighting, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
Sporadic clashes in the last two days between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military have killed 37 rebels, the military said on Wednesday, as daily land, sea battles and air raids continue in Sri Lanka’s far north. The fighting came amidst news that Tamil Tiger second-in-command, Brigadier Balraj, died from a heart attack in rebel-held north on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka military attacked rebel positions in the island’s far north on Sunday, amidst daily land, air and sea raids, killing 61 Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said on Monday. The fresh attacks, which also saw 15 soldiers killed, came after a rebel suicide bomber riding a motorbike killed 11 people, mostly police officers, in the capital, Colombo, on Friday.
The death toll from a bomb that ripped through a bus outside the Sri Lankan capital rose to 26 on Saturday after two more passengers died of their injuries, police said. The bomb exploded inside the overcrowded bus, blowing off its roof, as it pulled out of the Piliyandala terminal into rush-hour traffic on Friday.
Heavy fighting between rebels and government soldiers subsided in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, a day after intense artillery battles left hundreds killed or wounded, according to officials on both sides. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said they were planning to return the 30 bodies of government troops they captured.
At least 100 Sri Lankan troops were killed on Wednesday when Tamil separatists beat back a military offensive in the island’s north, the rebels said, while placing their own losses at 16. However, the military rejected the claims and said only 38 government troops were killed and 84 wounded.
Ferocious fighting erupted in Sri Lanka on Wednesday as government troops made a fresh bid to break into rebel territory, leaving at least 67 dead on both sides, the Defence Ministry said. A ministry spokesperson said 74 soldiers and about 100 rebels were also seriously wounded.
Sri Lankan government planes bombed three Tamil Tiger boats off the northern coast on Monday, the military said, after fighting since the weekend left 47 rebels dead. The fighting and the air raids were the latest in near daily land, sea and air battles that have left thousands dead in recent months.
A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka’s highways minister and at least 11 others on Sunday gathered for a marathon race near the capital, the government said. ”Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle is dead from the explosion,” Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media centre for national security, said.
Sri Lanka government troops on Wednesday captured a strip of land from Tamil Tigers after heavy fighting across the island’s north left 42 rebels and a soldier dead, the Defence Ministry said. Security forces killed the guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in separate clashes in the Mannar, Weli Oya and Jaffna districts since Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
At least 56 Tamil Tiger rebels and four government troops have been killed in heavy fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north over the weekend, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday. Helicopter gunships were deployed against suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam strongholds in the coastal district of Mannar on Saturday, the ministry said.
Sri Lankan troops killed 38 Tamil Tiger rebels for the loss of four soldiers in fresh fighting in the island’s north, the military said on Friday. Thursday’s fighting came as the military captured stretches of Tiger-held terrain in the north-western district of Mannar as part of a wider strategy to gradually retake the Tigers’ northern stronghold and win a 25-year civil war.
Sri Lanka was hit by scathing criticism over its human rights record on Thursday, with its government fingered over hundreds of ”disappearances” and an influential panel storming off the island. The move is a major blow to the image of the island’s government, which pulled out of a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels in January.