conflict parami kulatunga
The ___MASK67___ was an armed conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka . Beginning on 23 July 1983 , there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( the LTTE , also known as the Tamil Tigers ), which fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island . After a 26 - year military campaign , the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009 , bringing the civil war to an end . The Sri Lanka Army ( Sinhala :                   " Sri Lanka Yuddha Hamudawa ")( Tamil :           " Ilankai irauvam ") is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and is the nation ' s army . Established as the Ceylon Army in 1949 , it was renamed when Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972 . In 2010 , the Army had approximately 200 , 000 regular personnel , between 20 , 000  40 , 000 reserve personnel and 18 , 000 National Guardsmen and comprises 13 operational divisions , one air - mobile brigade , one commando brigade , one special forces brigade , one independent armored brigade , three mechanized infantry brigades and over 40 infantry brigades . From the 1980s to 2009 the army was engaged in the ___MASK67___ . ___MASK77___ general ( and its literal equivalent in several languages ) is a high military rank of general officer grade , and a gubernatorial title . Lieutenant General Parami Sugandika Bandara Kulatunga RSP , VSV , USP , GW ( Sinhala :          ) ( born 9 , October , 1951 in Kandy , died 26 , June , 2006  ) was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army , its third highest - ranking officer . On the morning of 26 June , he was killed by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber who drove an explosives laden motorbike into his official vehicle as it was driving to a military base at Pannipitiya near Colombo . A Memorial Dedication service for Lt . Gen . Kulatunga was held at the U . S . Army War College in Carlisle , Pennsylvania on October 11 , 2006 . Lieutenant general , lieutenant - general and similar ( abbrev Lt Gen , LTG and similar ) is a three - star military rank ( NATO code OF - 8 ) used in many countries . The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages , where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second in command on the battlefield , who was normally subordinate to a ___MASK77___ general .