Daily News Channel
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, flashing a broad smile, declared victory Tuesday in the country’s 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels. “We are celebrating the defeat of terrorism,” he said in a nationally televised speech before parliament
The Sri Lankan military said Monday that they killed three top leaders of the Tamil Tigers and the son of the rebel group’s founder. CNN was unable to confirm the account because of safety and access reasons. The deaths were the result of continuing armed encounters with the last remnants of the rebel group, who are now cornered in a small stretch of land in the country’s north, according to the military.
Sri Lanka’s quarter-century-long civil war is in its final phase, the government suggested Friday, as its troops pounded Tamil Tiger rebels in the country’s north.
President Obama on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka to halt "indiscriminate" shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country’s Tamil Tiger rebels and to let humanitarian aid in.
Hundreds of civilians died during weekend fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebel fighters, the United Nations reported Monday. “Verification is, of course, the part of the problem, because humanitarian agencies are denied access to the region,” U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said from the capital, Colombo.
Tamil demonstrators protesting the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka flooded onto a major highway in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday and remained there for several hours, closing the roadway and prompting police to send reinforcements while trying to negotiate an end to the incident.
A British news team that had been detained by Sri Lankan authorities — after producing a report about the alleged abuse of Tamils — has left the country.
Tamil Tiger rebels have been pinned down by Sri Lankan government troops in a small section of the country’s north, the Ministry of Defense claimed Tuesday. “Security forces have now cornered the remaining [rebels], including its most wanted terror chiefs,” the ministry’s Web site reported, saying the rebels are confined to less than 2 square miles (4.5 sq
Sri Lanka has ordered an end to combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country’s north, the president’s office said Monday. “Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian causalities,” according a statement from the Presidential Secretariat.
Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka faced another possible onslaught from government forces, as a mid-day deadline for them to surrender passed on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports from northern Sri Lanka where recent fighting has been taking place.