<P> The Sri Lankan Civil War 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 . </P>
who fought in the sri lankan civil war
the Sri Lankan military the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam