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 Sri Lankan civil war was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.
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.
Suppayya Paramu Thamilselvan, commonly known as S. P. Tamilselvan,, was the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, an organisation fighting for a separate state for the ethnic Tamil minority in the north and east of Sri Lanka from majority Sinhalese government. He was a prominent negotiator and one of the closest associates of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The Vaharai bombing is a disputed event in the Sri Lankan civil war. It occurred on November 7, 2006 when, according to survivors of the incident interviewed by Reuters, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fired artillery at Sri Lankan military personnel from near a school where minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees displaced by the current phase of the Sri Lankan civil war had taken shelter. The Sri Lankan Army returned fire and around 45 civilians were killed. Over 100 were injured and admitted to the local hospitals. However, people who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed that the LTTE did not fire artillery. Further, the rebel LTTE denies firing artillery from close to the school. The incident occurred at around 11.35 a.m close to Kathiraveli, a coastal village in Vaharai peninsula of the Batticaloa district in eastern Sri Lanka.
The Padahuthurai bombing or Illuppaikadavai bombing happened on January 2, 2007, when the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed what they claimed to be rebel LTTE naval base in Illuppaikadavai in Northern Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, the local Roman Catholic bishop, and the LTTE claimed 15 minority Sri Lankan Tamils, including women and children, were killed and 35 injured due to the bombing.
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.
Eelam War IV is the name given to the fourth and final phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Renewed hostilities began on the 26 July 2006, when Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets bombed several LTTE camps around Mavil Aru anicut. The government's casus belli was that the LTTE had cut off the water supply to surrounding paddy fields in the area. Shutting down the sluice gates of the Mavil Aru on July 21 depriving the water to over 15,000 people - Sinhalese and Muslim settlers under Sri Lankan state-sponsored colonisation schemes in Trincomalee district. They were denied of water for drinking and also cultivating over 30,000 acres of paddy and other crops. The fighting resumed after a four-year ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and LTTE. Continued fighting led to several territorial gains for the Sri Lankan Army, including the capture of Sampur, Vakarai and other parts of the east. The war took on an added dimension when the LTTE Air Tigers bombed Katunayake airbase on March 26, 2007, the first rebel air attack without external assistance in history.
The Battle of Pooneryn took place between the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan military during the Sri Lankan Civil War for control of the military base in Pooneryn in northern Sri Lanka from 11 November to 14 November 1993.
The Northern Theatre of Eelam War IV refers to the fighting that took place in the northern province of Sri Lanka between July 2006 and May 18, 2009.
The Raid on Anuradhapura Air Force Base, code-named Operation Ellaalan, was a commando raid conducted on SLAF Anuradhapura an Air Force Base in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The attack happened on 22 October 2007.
The 2008–2009 SLA Northern offensive was an armed conflict in the northern Province of Sri Lanka between the military of Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The battle began with a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive attempting to break through the LTTE defence lines in the north of the island, aiming to conclude the country's 25-year-old civil war by military victory.
The following lists notable events that took place during 2009 in Sri Lanka.
The Battle of Mullaitivu was a land battle fought between the Sri Lankan Military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the control of the town of Mullaitivu in the Northern Theatre of Eelam War IV during the Sri Lankan civil war. The town of Mullaitivu was the last stronghold of the LTTE. The government declared on 25 January 2009 that its troops had entered the town and were consolidating their positions.
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.
Iranamadu Airport is an air force station and domestic airport in Iranamadu in northern Sri Lanka. Located approximately 9.5 km (5.9 mi) south east of the town of Kilinochchi, the airport is also known as Kilinochchi Airport and SLAF Iranamadu. Originally built by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2003, it was captured by the Sri Lankan military in 2009 and taken over by the Sri Lanka Air Force.
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.
