The Colombo World Trade Centre Bombing was a terrorist attack which occurred on 15 October 1997 and was carried out by the LTTE during the separatist civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil Tigers.
Shortly before 7:00 am on 15 October 1997 a group of up to six fighters from the LTTE’s Black Tigers drove a truck laden with approximately 350 kg (770 lb) explosives into the car park of the Galadari Hotel, a five-star luxury hotel, located in the heart of Colombo’s business and government district, where they shot and killed four unarmed security guards. They then detonated the explosives by firing an RPG at the truck.
After the explosion, the terrorists, armed with assault rifles fired at the Sambuddhaloka Viharaya. The Chief Incumbent, Ven. Vitharadeniye Chandrajothi Nayake Thera, who had walked to the entrance to see what was going on was hit on the leg by gunfire. Later the fleeing guerrillas hurled a grenade killing him on the spot.
By then, the Army's QRT (Quick Reaction Team) - a specialized group trained for emergency deployment using trailer motor cycles - rushed to the scene. A soldier sitting on the pillion back to back with the rider opened fire. One of the fleeing guerrillas fell dead on the rail track close to the Secretariat Train Halt. Meanwhile four guerrillas crossed the rail line and entered Lake House through the rear production area.
The terrorists seized the ground floor area and held some 20 employees hostage. At one point, the guerrillas wanted water and asked one of the hostages. He pointed to a nearby toilet. As they went for water, one of the hostages escaped. He gave a description of what was going on inside and how the others were being kept hostage to the Army who already cordoned off Lake House.
Army commander Lt. Gen. Daluwatte decided to launch a rescue operation immediately. Air force airlifted the Anti hijacking & hostage release group of Sri Lanka Army Commandos under Capt. Chinthaka Dissanayake who are positioned in the Bandaranaike International Airport. While they are arriving, Colombo based 112 Brigade who already outside Lake House managed to rescue 20 hostages by killing one terrorist.
As Commandos arrived to location, 20 Specialized Commandos entered the building. Behind them were a group of soldiers from the 17th battalion of the Sri Lanka National Guard. The attempt was halted when terrorist detonated an explosive laden suicide jacket. One soldier injured and another died on the spot.
Soon after Commandos again stormed the building after exploding grenades. One terrorist detonated his suicide jacket and Commandos spotted the remaining terrorist trying to detonate explosives in his suicide jacket and shot him dead. [1]
The Galadari Hotel car park is located adjacent to the western tower of the Colombo World Trade Centre, two 39-storey office towers that housed the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Information Ministry at the time. Since the Colombo World Trade Centre was inaugurated a few days before, it was suspected to be the main target of the LTTE. [2] Damage to the hotel and nearby buildings, including the Hilton Hotel and the World Trade Centre, was heavy but not structurally catastrophic. The bomb crater was 6.1 m (20 ft) wide and 3.7 m (12 ft) deep. The blast destroyed 30 cars in the Galadari parking lot and shattered all the hotel’s windows as well as the windows on all the nearby buildings.
The attack killed fifteen people, including an Assistant Superintendent of Police in the Criminal Investigations Department, Nissanka Dharmaratne, a police constable, an Army Commando and the Viharadhipathi (Chief Priest) of the Sambuddhaloka Vihara, Ven. Vitharandeniye Thera. There were 105 were wounded including 31 tourists of which seven were US citizens. [3]
The government set aside a $25 million assistance package for all buildings damaged in the attack, with the Galadari Hotel reopening in January 1998 and the World Trade Center in June of the same year.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the northeast of the island in response to violent persecution and discriminatory policies against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan Government.
The Central Bank bombing was one of the deadliest attacks carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the separatist civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil Tigers.
The Special Task Force (STF) (Sinhala: විශේෂ කාර්ය බලකාය Visesha Karya Balakaya; Tamil: சிறப்பு அதிரடிப் படை) is the tier one police tactical unit of the Sri Lanka Police specialising in anti-irregular military, apprehension of armed and dangerous criminals, clandestine and covert operations, combat and patrolling in urban areas, counterterrorism and hostage rescue crisis managements, crowd control, executive protection, high-risk tactical law enforcement situations, indirect fire for support operations, irregular warfare, operating in difficult to access terrain, protecting high-level meeting areas, search and rescue people who are in distress or imminent danger from disaster, support crowd control and riot control, tactical special operations, and other tasks requiring special training. It was formed in 1983 not as a military force, but rather as a highly specialised armed police unit.
The Black Tigers was an elite suicide commando unit of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant Tamil separatist organization in Sri Lanka.
The Bandaranaike International Airport attack was a suicide raid Black Tigers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 24 July 2001 on the Sri Lanka Air Force base SLAF Katunayake and the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, Sri Lanka. The attack was one of the boldest the LTTE mounted during its war with the Sri Lankan government, and had a profound impact on the country's military, economy, and airline industry.
Operation Pawan was the code name assigned to the operation by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to take control of Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers, in late 1987 to enforce the disarmament of the LTTE as a part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. In brutal fighting lasting about three weeks, the IPKF took control of the Jaffna Peninsula from the LTTE, something that the Sri Lankan Army had tried but failed to do. Supported by Indian Army tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery, the IPKF routed the LTTE at the cost of 214 soldiers and officers.
Operation Definite Victory was a military operation launched by Sri Lankan Special Task Force commandos on January 4, 2007 to liberate the Kanchikudichcharu and Thoppigala regions of the Ampara District of Sri Lanka from the LTTE. The army had accused the LTTE of carrying out the child abductions in Bakmitiyawa and Ampara, including the abduction of two teachers and 23 Tamil children in December by LTTE cadres when they were returning from extra classes to their homes.
The Commando Regiment is the commando formation of the Sri Lanka Army. The unit specializes in various roles including hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, counter-insurgency, and personnel recovery. It was formed in 1980 and is based in Ganemulla, a suburb of Colombo.
The Tamil Eelam Air Force or Sky Tigers was the air service branch of the Divisions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who used it against the Government of Sri Lanka. They also called themselves the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF). Though the existence of the Sky Tigers had been the subject of speculation for many years, the existence of the wing was only revealed after an attack in March 2007, during Eelam War IV.
The World Trade Center is a 152-metre-tall (499 ft) twin building in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The 39-storey towers are built over a 4-storey retail podium, and thus each tower has a total floor count of 43. WTCC is owned and managed by Overseas Realty Ceylon PLC (ORCPLC).
On February 20, 2009, the air wing of the Tamil Tigers separatist militia launched a suicide attack against military locations in and around Colombo, Sri Lanka, using two weaponized light aircraft. It is speculated that the raids were intended to mimic the September 11 attacks, where aircraft were used as flying bombs and crashed directly into their targets. The attackers failed to reach their presumed targets and crashed to the ground after being shot down by the Sri Lanka Air Force, although one of the aircraft struck a government building in Colombo, killing two people, and over 50 people in total were injured in both crashes.
Suicide Bombing was a popular tactic of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of attacking enemies to maximize enemy casualties and minimize attacker's casualties.
The 1998 Temple of the Tooth attack was an attack on the Temple of the Tooth Relic, located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The shrine, which is considered to be important to the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha, and is also a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site. In 1998, it was attacked by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state in Northern and Eastern parts of the country, from 1983 to 2009.
Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the 20th and 21st centuries, especially so during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first (1971) and second JVP insurrections (1987–1989). A common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals. Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders. Terrorism has posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.
The Battle of Nelliady took place during the early stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It occurred on 5 July 1987, when a force of 50 LTTE militants assaulted the Sri Lanka Army Camp located in the Nelliady Central College in the town of Nelliady in the Jaffna District in northern Sri Lanka. The attack was the bloodiest battle for the Sri Lankan forces since the Vadamarachchi Operation in June 1987, which cleared the area of Nelliady of LTTE militants. The attack on Nelliady army camp resulted in the Sri Lankan forces suffering 19 killed and 31 wounded, while LTTE executed its first suicide bombing which was carried out by Captain Miller.
Galadari Hotel, traded as Galadari Hotels (Lanka) PLC, is a five-star luxury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Emirati conglomerate, Galadari Brothers are the controlling shareholders of the hotel company. The hotel commenced operations in 1984. The hotel was previously managed by Meridien Hotels and Marriott before the Galadari Brothers themselves took over the management in 1994. The hotel suffered from a couple of terrorist attacks in the 1990s most notably in 1997. In 2022, the hotel won the Hotel Brand of the Year award at the SLIM-Kantar Peoples Awards.
On December 18, 1999, the 5th President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, was wounded in a coordinated bomb blast that was attempting to take her life. Kumaratunga had been president for one-term, and was campaigning for her second term in office in the 1999 presidential election. Upon leaving her final election rally at Town Hall in the country's capital of Colombo, she was caught in an explosive attack planned by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.