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Four U.S. supporters of a ruthless Sri Lankan rebel group recently vanquished by government forces there pleaded guilty Tuesday to terrorism charges.
Sri Lanka announced Monday it would hold elections for two key town councils in the war-torn north, a week after government forces crushed the separatist Tamil Tigers who ran a de facto state across the region.
The portly rebel leader with the bushy mustache and trusty Browning pistol turned a small band of poorly armed guerrillas into one of the world's most sophisticated and ruthless insurgencies.
Sri Lanka declared Monday it had crushed the final resistance of the Tamil Tigers, killing rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and ending his three decade quest for an independent homeland for minority Tamils.
Two days of shelling across Sri Lanka's northern war zone killed at least 430 ethnic Tamil civilians — and likely as many as 1,000 — a government doctor in the area said Monday. The United Nations branded the attacks a "bloodbath."
Sri Lanka's government said Sunday it is considering an amnesty for Tamil Tiger rebels who surrender — although not for leaders of the insurgency, which is facing defeat after 25 years of civil war.
The Sri Lanka military vowed Monday to quickly wipe out the Tamil Tigers after the rebels suffered at least 453 dead and were pushed into a small "no-fire" zone crowded with tens of thousands of civilians.
Conditions in Sri Lanka's overcrowded war zone have rapidly deteriorated as stranded families packed fields filled with human waste, water supplies dwindled and a makeshift hospital ran out of essential medicines, the top health official in the region said Wednesday.
Starving and trapped by fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, scores of civilians tried to flee villages in the northeastern war zone. But as they ran, the rebels opened fire, according to survivors' accounts.
Thousands of Canadian Tamils formed a human chain through Toronto's downtown on Friday to protest a Sri Lankan government offensive aimed at crushing the separatist Tamil Tigers.
Sri Lanka's prime minister said Thursday government forces will not suspend an offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels, rejecting calls for a cease-fire by donor countries concerned by reports of growing civilian casualties.
Two men pleaded guilty Tuesday on the eve of a trial on charges they tried to supply missiles and assault weapons to militants involved in the civil war in Sri Lanka.
Dozens of U.N. workers and their relatives spent a terrifying night huddling in hastily built bunkers as artillery fire pounded a civilian "safe zone" in Sri Lanka's war-wracked north, according to an internal U.N. memo.
Sri Lanka's military declared a "safety zone" Wednesday to enable some 250,000 trapped civilians to cross into government-controlled territory from the diminishing area held by Tamil Tiger rebels in the war-torn north.
Sri Lankan government forces seized a final strip of Tamil Tiger rebel-held land in the north Wednesday, securing control of the symbolic heart of the 25-year separatist insurgency, the military said.
Sri Lankan troops launched a major attack Monday against Tamil rebel fortifications, sparking clashes that killed 57 insurgents and 10 soldiers, the military said. The Tamil Tigers said more than 100 soldiers were killed.
Sri Lankan troops broke through a strategic front in the country's civil war on Thursday, overrunning an important rebel defense line north of the Tamil Tiger's de facto state, the military said.
Sri Lanka's navy fought a fierce battle Saturday against Tamil Tigers in the northern sea, destroying six rebel boats and killing 17 guerillas with the help of air strikes by military bomber planes, officials said.
A bomb blast blamed on separatist Tamil Tigers wounded 45 people in Sri Lanka's capital Saturday, while renewed fighting in the embattled north killed 19 rebels and six soldiers, the military said.
Sri Lanka urged civilians living in Tamil Tiger rebel-held areas to flee to government-controlled territory as fighting escalated in the embattled north, officials said Friday.
Sri Lankan government forces captured a Tamil Tiger rebel base in the north Sunday after a 48-hour battle that left at least 15 rebels dead, while air force jets destroyed six rebel boats, the military said.
Sri Lanka's military says a new wave of fighting in the north has killed 22 ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels and five soldiers.
A wave of battles broke out between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists in Sri Lanka's north and east, killing 11 rebels and four soldiers, the military said Friday.
A roadside bombing blamed on the Tamil Tigers killed a Sri Lankan government minister Tuesday in an attack likely to intensify the civil war already raging across this Indian Ocean island nation.
A group of Tamil Tiger fighters, backed by the rebel group's tiny air force, carried out a surprise pre-dawn attack on a Sri Lankan air force base Monday, setting off a huge battle that killed five airmen and 20 guerrillas, the military said.
Sri Lanka to probe alleged wartime human rights abuses" Sri Lanka has responded to mounting international criticisms of its wartime conduct by announcing it will appoint a "homegrown" committee to probe alleged human rights abuses.
Sri Lanka Disputes The Authenticity of This Video, Which Shows Sri Lankan Soldiers Executing Unarmed Tamils [Warning: Extremely Graphic]Sri Lanka's technological refutation of the authenticity of a video of Army (SLA) soldiers executing unarmed Tamil men broadcast by Channel 4 in August is based on a processed video-file taken from the broadcaster's website, rather than the original mobile phone footage, expe …
India does not want to talk to Pakistan. What does it want? From the writings that come out of India especially from the RAW sponsored South Asia Analysis Group an Indian wish list is clearly discernible.
Figures from Indian sources all indicate that the violence is way down in Indian Held Kashmir. The number of civilian deaths in 2007 were 170, in 2008 147 and in 2009 58 up to July. These include people killed by Indian security forces.
UN call for S Lanka video probe A senior UN official has called for an investigation into whether Sri Lankan soldiers violated international law by executing unarmed Tamils.
Sri Lanka to train Pakistani army. 17:14 GMT, Friday, 21 August 2009 18:14 UKSri Lanka's army has said it will be happy to give training to members of the Pakistani military. It says Islamabad has requested the training because of the country's success in defeating the Tamil Tigers.
India has a booming trade relationship with Myanmar. India has a massive insurgency problem in its north east that can be exploited from Myanmar. India therefore remains silent as the world condemns Myanmar for its treatment of Aung Sun Kyi.
'Pressured' to inflate death toll COLOMBO - SRI Lankan doctors arrested for allegedly spreading rebel propaganda before the defeat of the Tamil Tigers told reporters here on Wednesday that they were pressured to inflate death tolls.
To Catch a Tiger The Tamil Tigers were no ordinary insurgency. Built on the ethnic hatred of the minority Hindu Tamils against the majority Sinhalese Buddhists, the movement was among the best organized and most ruthless to have emerged anywhere since the Second World War.
National Post editorial board: The UNs double standard on Israel and Sri LankaIf more proof were needed that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a feckless, biased, intellectually corrupt haven for dictators and Islamofascists, the evidence was clearly on display this week.
UN Calls for Inquiry on 'Unacceptably High' Civilian Death Toll in Sri LankaA senior UN official said the civilian death toll from the Sri Lankan government's crushing of the Tamil Tiger insurgency was "unacceptably high" and should be the subject of an official inquiry.
Sri Lanka: UN rejects war crimes inquiry "The United Nations human rights council has rejected calls to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by both sides in the final stages of Sri Lanka's bloody 25-year conflict.
Civil Wars - The Fights That Do Not Want to End Last week, after more than 25 years of conflict, the Tamil separatists of Sri Lanka admitted defeat in their war for an independent homeland.
Civil Wars - The Fights That Do Not Want to End"If you had asked the Confederates in the American Civil War, that's not what they called it," Mr. Boot said. "For them it was a war of Northern aggression. They saw themselves as an independent state being assaulted by another independent state."
Slain Tamil chiefs were promised safety | The Australianhard to feel too bad for them...
Indias Foreign Policy 2004-2009: The Wasted Years At the turn of the millennium and till 2004, India in terms of its foreign policy achievements stood on a promising threshold. The nuclear weaponisation tests of 1998 had endowed India's foreign policy with boldness and assertiveness.
What the Tigers mean for IndiaIndia and Sri Lanka have both been holding elections.
Washington Post's Fantasy EditorialIf you replace references to the Tamil Tigers' leadership with Hamas and its leadership, this Washington Post staff-ed would be just as true. It would also be too politically incorrect to be published:
The Tigers are beaten but it isn't over yet The Sri Lankan Army is celebrating victory as its elite forces occupy the Tamil Tigers' last refuge at the Mulathive Lagoon, thanks to Chinese military aid. Since 2007 China has equipped the Sri Lankan Government with all the weapons and support the rest of the world had denied …
As Sri Lanka Conflict Ends, Responding to IDPs is a Challenge"Over the last few months, more than 265,000 people have been displaced by the battling between Sri Lankan government forces and the LTTE Tamil Tiger rebel movement. They include about 80,000 who fled the conflict zone over the weekend as the civil war came to an end."
'Sun God's' life of war COLOMBO - SRI Lankan Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, 54, who has been reported killed, was feted as a 'Sun God' by his supporters and branded as a ruthless megalomaniac by his opponents.
Tamil Tigers supreme commander Prabhakaran 'shot dead' The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels has been killed along with his son and other rebel commanders, according to reports today.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger Rebels Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran Apparently "Shot Dead""Military sources have claimed" Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers rebels has been "shot dead."
Tamil Tigers admit defeat - Los Angeles TimesThe revolution stops now. It is very good news, for those of us who will see this as very good news. Operators are standing by....
Sri Lanka Army Defeated Tamil Tigers, President Says. By Jay Shankar. May 16, 2009 11:25 EDT The army rescued more than 210,000 civilians held hostage by the rebels, Rajapaksa said. The LTTE said the civilians were staying on their own free will and that 1,700 civilians had been killed by army artillery in a two-day period this week.
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