AP News, November 2nd, 2007
Major developments in Sri Lanka's conflict.
_ 1975: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group forms. The group demands a separate state for minority ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east.
_ 1983: Civil war begins, sparked by anti-Tamil riots in the capital, Colombo. Many believe the riots were organized by the majority Sinhalese-dominated government.
_ 1987: Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayawardena sign a pact, and Indian peacekeeping troops arrive.
_ 1991: Female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber assassinates India's former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, at an election campaign rally in southern India, apparently in revenge for sending Indian peacekeeping troops who ended up fighting the rebels.
_ 1993: Tamil Tiger suicide bomber kills Sri Lanka's President Ranasinghe Premadasa at a May Day parade after his government's failed peace efforts.
_ 1999: Tamil Tiger suicide bomber tries to kill Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga at an election meeting. Kumaratunga survives, but loses an eye.
_ February 2002: The Sri Lankan government signs a cease-fire agreement with Tamil Tigers, ending 19 years of civil war, which left more than 65,000 dead.
_ Dec. 26, 2004: The Indian Ocean tsunami kills more than 35,000 Sri Lankans and leaves tens of thousands homeless.
_ Early 2005: Hopes rise that the tsunami and post-disaster reconstruction efforts could bridge the island's ethnic divide and bring hostilities to an end.
_ June 2005: Relations between the government and Tiger rebels deteriorate over the issue of sharing international tsunami aid.
_ August 2005: Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil who opposed a separate state for the minority, is assassinated by snipers in a killing blamed on the Tigers.
_ December 2005: Tiger rebels launch first major attack since truce, killing at least 12 Sri Lankan navy sailors. A series of attacks follows.
_ Feb. 22, 2006: Government and rebel officials meet in Switzerland for peace talks and agree to de-escalate violence.
_ April 19, 2006: A second round of peace talks is postponed as the two sides argue over transport and security.
_ April 25, 2006: A suicide bombing blamed on rebels targets the government's top military commander, killing eight. Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka is hurt along with 26 others. The army responds by attacking rebel bases.
_ May 11, 2006: Rebel suicide boats ram and sink a navy patrol craft, killing at least 17 sailors. Five Tiger ships are destroyed in the battle, killing 50 rebels. The government responds with airstrikes on Tiger positions.
_ June 8, 2006: Talks in Norway aimed at restoring peace collapse, after the Tigers refuse face-to-face meetings with Sri Lankan government representatives.
_ June 15, 2006: A land mine blast under a bus kills 62 and wounds 78. The government blames the rebels and launches airstrikes. The Tigers deny involvement.
_ July 20, 2006: Tamil Tigers close sluice gates of an eastern reservoir, cutting water to over 60,000 people, promoting the government to launch its first major offensive on Tiger territory since the 2002 cease-fire.
_ August 2006: Seventeen aid workers from Action Against Hunger group are found killed execution-style amid heavy fighting between government soldiers and the rebels in the eastern town of Muttur.
_ Aug. 14, 2006: Air force bombing in rebel-held Mullaithvu district allegedly kills 61 school girls. Government claims its target was a rebel base.
_ Dec.14, 2006: Anton Balasingham, the Tamil Tiger chief peace negotiator and adviser to guerrilla leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, dies of cancer.
_ March 26, 2007: Tamil Tigers launch their first airstrike in more than two decades of separatist fighting, on an air base outside Colombo. Three airmen are killed and 16 more wounded.
_ July 11, 2007: Government announces its troops capture the Eastern Province, restricting the rebels to the north.
_ Oct. 22, 2007 : Tamil Tiger suicide fighters, backed by the rebels' small air force, launch a pre-dawn attack on an air base in Anuradhapura, north-central province, destroying eight aircraft. Fourteen troops and 21 rebels are killed.
_ Nov. 2, 2007: Tamil Tigers' political wing head S.P. Thamilselvan, believed by many to be the second-in-command of the group, is killed in a government air raid in rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.
