Eelam War II

Government of Sri LankaPresidents Ranasinghe Premadasa, D. B. Wijetunga and Chandrika Kumaratunga

1990vs

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)Velupillai Prabhakaran

Three months after the last Indian troops left, the LTTE ended its truce with Colombo. The second phase of the war left the Tigers in control of Jaffna and much of the Vanni.

Date: June 1990 – January 1995Where: North and east of Sri LankaType: Campaign

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Cite

MLA

“Eelam War II.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/eelam-war-ii-1990/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Eelam War II. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/eelam-war-ii-1990/

Result

Neither side won; the war ended in a ceasefire in January 1995 that broke down in April.

01The truce breaks

In June 1990 the LTTE overran police stations in the Eastern Province and killed hundreds of policemen who had surrendered on Colombo’s orders. The government answered with full war. In the east the army retook the towns. In the north the Tigers besieged the old Dutch fort at Jaffna, which the army abandoned in September 1990, and in July 1991 they attacked the Elephant Pass base at the neck of the peninsula in their first great set-piece battle; it was relieved by an amphibious landing.

02A divided island

The war went on as a stalemate. The Tigers ran Jaffna as their own territory, while the army held the east and the edges of the Vanni. In May 1993 an LTTE suicide bomber killed President Premadasa in Colombo. Chandrika Kumaratunga came to power in 1994 promising peace, and a ceasefire took effect in January 1995. Talks failed, and in April 1995 the LTTE sank two navy gunboats at Trincomalee, opening Eelam War III.

Why it matters

Eelam War II left the island divided between two administrations, the condition Operation Riviresa set out to end.