Eelam War IV

Part of the Sri Lankan Civil War

Date	26 July 2006 – 18 May 2009 (2 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Location	Sri Lanka
Result	Decisive Sri Lankan Armed Forces victory. End of LTTE conventional military capabilities inside Sri Lanka.

Belligerents

Sri Lanka

Military of Sri Lanka

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Commanders and leaders

Mahinda Rajapaksa, President
Sarath Fonseka, Commander of the Army
Wasantha Karannagoda, Commander of the Navy
Roshan Goonatilake, Commander of the Air Force

Velupillai Prabhakaran †

Strength

150,000 (approx.)

18,000 (approx.)

Casualties and losses

6,261 killed (government claim)
29,551 wounded(government claim)

15,000 to 22,000 killed (government claim)

Sri Lanka

Eelam War IV is the name given to the fourth phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is currently proscribed as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries. 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. 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.

Eelaam War IV ended on 18 May 2009 with the Sri Lanka Army gaining control of the last bit of territory held by the LTTE and with the death of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. The final few days of the war near Nandikadal Lagoon in the north east of the island saw very heavy fighting and led to Sri Lankan forces being accused of war crimes, which were denied by the government. Some 300,000 Tamil civilians who were trapped inside the war zone and prevented from escaping by the LTTE were caught in the crossfire during the final phase of the war.

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Wikipedia