After defeating the insurgency led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in 1971, the Sri Lanka Armed Forces were confronted with a new conflict, this time with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and other Tamil militant groups. The war escalated to the point where India was asked to intervene as a peacekeeping force. This was later seen as a tactical error, as the IPKF united nationalist elements such as the JVP to politically support the LTTE in their call to evict the IPKF. The war with the LTTE halted following the signing of a ceasefire agreement in 2002 with the help of international mediation. However, renewed violence broke out in December 2005 and following the collapse of peace talks, the army was once again involved in heavy fighting in the north and east of the country, until the LTTE's defeat in 2009.

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From 1980 to 2009 the army had undertaken many operations against the LTTE rebels. The major operations conducted by the army eventually lead to the recapture of Jaffna and other rebel strongholds.

The table below lists all major battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The information included in the table has been pieced together from the individual battle articles.