Sri Lanka news columns

COLOMBO: Following the victory of the Sri Lankan army over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant outfit once considered by many as an invincible force, Pakistan has asked Sri Lanka to provide training to its military personnel. The government of Pakistan wants the Sri Lankan military to train its personnel in counter-insurgency operations, the Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Lt-Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, told journalists on Thursday. He said several other countries had also sought information about the strategy and tactics adopted by the Sri Lankan armed forces to decimate the LTTE in just three years of intense fighting. Pakistan helped Sri Lanka fight the LTTE by supplying arms when other countries had put an embargo on arms sales to the country. Adm Wasantha Karannagoda, a former naval chief who is currently the National Security Adviser, had said at an international naval seminar in the UK that the strategies and tactics used by the Sri Lankan navy to tackle the LTT...

A new threat looms over the advancing troops in the Wanni war theatre. The Sri Lanka Army, just five kilometres away from the administrative headquarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were pushing forward, when, on two separate occasions they came under unexpected non-lethal gas attacks in the Kilinochchi district. This situation has raised concerns among defence officials. On Monday evening, troops from the 57 Division fighting in the Akkarayankulam area in Kilinochchi district noticed some soldiers behaving in an unusual manner Several soldiers had started vomiting and there were burn injuries on a few of them as well. All the affected soldiers developed breathing difficulties. Soon some six soldiers of the battalion were rushed to the Anuradhapura hospital and special attention was given to these soldiers with several doctors of the hospital examining them. Later it was revealed that these soldiers had suffered a gas attack. Following this situation the Defenc...

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers will go underground rather than "fight to the last man" once a northern offensive that has cut their strength to 3,000 fighters from 12,000 nears its end, Sri Lanka's army chief said on Thursday. Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka also said he had no clear timeframe for retaking territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), because his aim was killing all of the insurgents rather than seizing ground. "We don't want to end up in a situation like in Iraq when you're moving fast, but you’ve left behind a whole army who will resort to guerrilla tactics," Fonseka told Reuters in an interview at Army Headquarters in Colombo. "Therefore I don't give a timeframe," said the 38-year-veteran who was appointed army commander in 2005. Ground troops have steadily fought through the northern jungles of the Indian Ocean island and smashed LTTE outposts, bunkers and trenches with air strike su...

Ranil WIJAYAPALA colombo: Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka told the Daily News yesterday that Security Forces operating in Wanni are ready to face any type of gas attacks by the LTTE as they have been equipped with gas masks to face such situations. Confirming that LTTE had fired two canisters of CS gas in Akkarayankulam and Vannivilankulam, the Army Commander said it was not a chemical weapon but a gas which is being used for anti hijacking operations worldwide. CS is a substance that is used as a riot control agent and is generally accepted as being non-lethal. CS gas has been discovered by two Americans, Ben Corson and Roger Staughton, at Middlebury College in 1928, and the chemical gets its name from the first letters of the scientists' surnames. "If the LTTE fires CS canisters at us gas we have the capability fire more powerful gases against them as we have the mandate as a sovereign state to make use of these gases to curb any terror activity of the LTTE," ...

Ranil WIJAYAPALA MULLAITIVU: Army troops attached to the 57 Division yesterday entered the strategically important Thunukkai town, an alternative hideout of LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the Western flank of the Mullaitivu district, west of the Jaffna-Kandy A-9 road and are continuing search operation to flush out Tiger cadres, military sources told the Daily News last night. "The fall of Thunukkai is imminent by Friday afternoon as troops are flushing out Tiger cadres," Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said. Meanwhile, military sources said that intermittent clashes erupted yesterday too with the LTTE, as troops entered this strategically important town to gain full control of it. Sources said troops were poised for more clashes as LTTE was offering stiff resistance towards the advancing troops as they are on the verge of losing one of their strongholds in the Wanni. Thunukkai is on the Mankulam-Vellankulam Road which connects the Jaffna-Kandy A-9 Road to the N...

Security forces inching to Pooneryn, Kilinochchi Female Tiger cadres removed from battlefront, replaced by Charles Anthony units On August 1 after many reversals on the battle field, the Tigers hit back. The attack was anticipated and its ferocity took a toll on the security forces. Elite fighting units of the LTTE, the Charles Anthony and Imran Pandian Brigades launched a major counter attack against the army’s 57 Division, which was consolidating the newly captured areas south of Mallavi. The troops were busy digging trenches and bunkers when they were confronted by waves of guerrilla fighters of the battle hardened fighting formations of the LTTE. Two weeks back, the military monitored a heavy build up of LTTE cadres in Mallavi and Thunukkai, following the rout of a unit of a Charles Anthony “regiment” in Vannikulam. The Tiger cadres retreated from Vannikulam towards Mallavi and Thunukkai, two strategically important towns with a sizable civilian population. Intelligence so...