Under pressure following serious losses, the LTTE has asked India to "stop providing military assistance" to the Sri Lankan government and vowed to take back it de facto political headquarters Kilinochchi.
Security has been tightened in all three airports in Kerala -- Thiruvananthapuram ,Kochi and Kozhikode -- after a warning from the Air India Mumbai office that there is a possibility of an LTTE attack on Kerala airports.
As Sri Lanka staged an impressive military parade to mark its victory over the LTTE, President Rajapaksa today told his troops that it was now time to win over the hearts of the minority Tamils who should be able to live without "fear and mistrust".
Balasingham first met Prabhakaran in Tamil Nadu in the late 1970s and since then they had been close associates.
Sri Lankan Navy, assisted by helicopter gunships, on Saturday destroyed three Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam boats, killing at least 15 of its cadres, while rebels said they sank two naval vessels in a fierce sea battle.
Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tigers have further compounded the fragile ceasefire in the island nation by resorting to heavy artillery fire in the rebel fronts of Jaffna and Trincomalee, which claimed at least four lives.
Publicly, India maintained it would not give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons. The Congress party obviously did not want the shadow of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict to fall on the politics of Tamil Nadu and needlessly complicate matters during the election campaign. A fascinating exclusive excerpt from Nitin Gokhale's new book, Sri Lanka: From War to Peace.
The reconciliation commission studying Sri Lanka's ethnic war and its aftermath is ready with its final report and may present it to President Mahinda Rajapaksa over the next 15 days. Officials said on Monday that the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission is being readied for presentation to the President who will then decide on making it public. LLRC spokesman Lakshman Wickremasinghe said the report could be presented to Rajapaksa before the November 15
The fierce clashes got under way at a time when President Mahinda Rajapaksa unveiled the budget proposals for 2008 in Parliament and vowed to wipe out terrorism completely in the island nation.
More than 35,000 trapped Tamil civilians on Monday made a dramatic breakout from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-controlled areas in Sri Lanka's embattled north, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa handing out a last 24-hour deadline for Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran and his top aides to surrender. Proclaiming that the mass exodus indicated that a 'complete defeat' of the Tigers was imminent, Rajapaksa warned that after this, his forces would make an 'all out' bid.
A five-member Indian parliamentary delegation has arrived here in the Sri Lankan capital on a four-day trip to hold bilateral talks. The delegation is scheduled to visit Tamil-dominated Jaffna city, the capital of Sri Lanka's Northern Province, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said on Tuesday.
He said the army has captured the entire Pudukudiriyirippu area that was under the control of the Tamil Tigers, who have lost many of their key leaders in the latest fighting. Important LTTE leaders killed in the clashes included Vidusha, Nagesh, Durga, Deepan and Patabi, Nanayakkara said, adding another senior rebel leader Banu was injured.
Amid widespread speculation about the whereabouts of the Tamil Tiger supremo, who has vowed not to be captured alive, the Lankan military on Monday said that Velupillai Prabhakaran could be at the centre stage of the battle with the army.
Liberal member of the Canadian Parliament Gurbax Malhi addressed a rally in Ottawa on March 5 against the backdrop of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam flags."I'd like to let you know I'm helping you guys. I'm behind you because you are fighting for a right cause," he said.
Targeting the 'support network' of the Tamil Tigers, the United States on Wednesday designated a US-based charity group as a 'front' of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and ordered freezing of its assets. The Tamil Foundation has been designated under 'Executive Order 13224', which "targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism," the US Department of Treasury said in a press statement.
The bomber, with explosives strapped on her body, blew herself up as she was to go through a checkpoint meant for Tamil civilians who have crossed over from rebel-held lines. his was the first major suicide attack in Sri Lanka in a month, though last week government forces claimed to have thwarted several such attempts on the battlefront near Mullaittivu.
The elusive Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is still in Sri Lanka and leading his fighters on the battlefront in Mullaittivu, a top rebel leader has said.Describing as 'malicious propaganda' reports that Prabhkaran has fled the island, B Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said, "Prabhakaran is with our people. He is still leading the freedom struggle".Nadesan's comments came amidst reports about heavy fighting between Tigers & Army
The government claims that the tigers have two aircraft.
The Tamil Nadu police on Wednesday refuted media reports about possible intrusion of Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam cadres in the state following the discovery of some boats with bullet marks along the Rameswaram coast recently.
Mounting pressure on the Centre over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi will lead an all-party delegation to Delhi on December 4, seeking the prime minister's intervention for an immediate ceasefire in the island nation.
He clarified that the government is not going to help the LTTE "as it is a terrorist organisation responsible for assassination of an Indian Prime Minister and not even apologised for it."
Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, quoting Navy chief Vice-Admiral Daya Sandagiri had reported that Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman were among the tsunami casualties.
Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy, who is pursuing the 2G spectrum scam, on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to direct Central Bureau of Investigation to expand the ambit of its probe to cover the alleged link between terror outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam and telecom company Aircel.
The president of the Tamil United Liberation Front is in Toronto for a few days meeting with his constituents, Sri Lankan-Canadians, Canadian politicians at various levels, sharing with them how political conditions in his country have deteriorated. V Andasangaree, who was previously member of Sri Lankan Parliament, was a guest speaker at the opening of the exhibition The Call of the Conscience at Toronto's Royal Thompson Hall on August 25.
Abdul Samad Mohamed Raik was convicted for cloning more than 500 credit cards to steal 175,000 in a fraud allegedly driven by links to a Sri Lankan guerilla group.
A prominent human rights watchdog has criticised the British government for allowing Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Colonel Karuna Amman, a former Tamil Tigers leader, to return to Sri Lanka as a free man. 45-year-old Karuna was released from a jail in London last month after serving three months for entering Britain on a forged visa and diplomatic passport.
Three Sri Lankan sailors and four Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres were killed in a pre-dawn attack by Tamil rebels on a navy outpost in Mannar on Wednesday.The Tigers claimed that the area was brought under their control for a few hours after they captured arms and military gadgets, including a radar equipment."According to the available information, four sea tigers, including their leader Sirimaran, have died in the battle," the Defence Ministry said.
The faction controlled by renegade commander V Muralitharan alias Karuna fired mortars and small arms fire for nearly two hours across the Verugal river.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has made application to the POTA Review Committee.
Swaraj saluted "brave Indian soldiers who gave up their lives protecting the cause of peace in Sri Lanka".
The LTTE has 'quite a resume' as a terrorist group, which is credited with perfecting the use of suicide bombers, inventing suicide belts and pioneering the use of women in suicide attacks, the top investigating agency said.
"The Government of Sri Lanka, without any justification, has now unilaterally withdrawn from the ceasefire agreement. The LTTE wishes to state that even at this juncture, it is ready to implement every clause of the CFA agreement and respect it 100 per cent," LTTE political head B Nadesan said in a statement.
The 20-page report on the island nation covering the period from November 2006 to September 2007, notes that 'both parties have failed to cease the abduction, recruitment and use of children.'
The LTTE has been conducting multi-pronged war exercises at the facility when it was hit by the jets, the defence ministry said. "The LTTE's Kilinochchi leadership is yet to reveal losses," the army said citing intercepted communication.
At least 22 Tamil Tigers and a soldier were killed in separate clashes in restive northern Sri Lanka as government troops captured a key base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam hours after taking control of two defence lines in the region, the army said on Sunday.
While earlier reports indicated the vessel was carrying 200 Sri Lankan migrants, unidentified Canadian sources say there are at least 500 people on board, including women and children. There are mixed reactions in Canada too. Some say the vessel should not be given nod to anchor on the country's shores, others say it is a ploy of the beleaguered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to regroup outside of Sri Lanka.
The presence of Vaz, parliamentarian from Indian-dominated Leicester East, and a fellow Labour MP, Joan Ryan, drew an angry response from the Sri Lankan High Commission, which released a statement claiming that the event was a 'clear violation of the UK terrorism laws.'
Gotabaya Rajapaksa
Harin Peiris also said Kumaratunga would break up the island's embattled northeastern province.
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