"The best form of defence is offence," Tiger military spokesperson Rasiah Ilanthirayan remarked hours after the Monday clash at an air force base north of Colombo, which killed around 34 people.
New Delhi's handling of the post-May 2009 situation has been a case of one faux pas after another, says B Raman
The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) has initiated a charity project to provide rehabilitation measures for the Tamil population of Sri Lanka that suffered due to a decades-old war between the country's defence forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Troops and the LTTE exchanged fire along a de facto border in the Wanni region on Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
The "message" was given to Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen during his meeting with LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said it was not bound by a declaration issued by international donors who pledged some $4.5 billion to help rebuild Sri Lanka at a June 2003 meeting in Tokyo.
The prime mission behind the new Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Professor Gamini Lakshman Peiris' meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is to repair the strained relations between the US and Sri Lanka, which took a beating last year when the Sri Lankan forces were crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The US had alleged that there were large scale human rights violations during the military offensive against the tigers.
The three men were blown up while rigging an explosive device in the northern Periyarkulam village in the district of Vavuniya.
"There is no point in beating around the bush. The government is ready to re-look at it," Defence Ministry Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj will lead a fourteen-member Parliament delegation to Sri Lanka on Monday to study the alleged human rights violation during the operations against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the north eastern province of the island nation.
"Apart from the way the Tiger leader got killed, the military is also still investigating intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman's death as they could not find his body among top level Tiger leaders," the State-run Sunday Observer said.
The bomb, planted on a tree-top, exploded as the crowded bus passed by in the Vavuniya district, 250 km north of Colombo, a police official in the area said over telephone.
The attack came a day after Tamil Tigers carried out their first ever air raid, bombing a military airbase near the international airport here killing three airmen and injuring 16.
Cornered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran, who is still holed up in a small strip of land in embattled north, may flee from the island using a submarine, a top Sri Lankan army official said on Friday."Prabhakaran, who is present in the no-fire zone along with his son Charles Anthony, Tigers' intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Sea Tiger chief Soosai, might have retained a submarine to escape from the island," said an army official.
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.'
The Tamil Tigers said on Monday that they were ready for a ceasefire with the Sri Lankan government, but refused to lay down their arms. With the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam cornered in a fast shrinking small landmass in the north easter coast of the country, the rebels appeal for a truce came in a letter to the United Nations and other foreign powers.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said on Friday said the air strikes carried out by it over capital Colombo killing two people and injuring 54 others were suicide attacks by its elite 'Black Air Tiger' squad.
The mediators also praised India's role in the developments in the island nation.
The Home Ministry on Tuesday has issued a Look out Circular (LOC) against a USA-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sympathiser Dr. Ellyn Shander, who was to have addressed a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, at the India Islamic Culture Centre .Shander has a valid Indian visa, still the LOC was issued.
The troops, backed by fighter jets, had on Thursday stormed two key rebel bastions near Killinocchi in the island's north after killing 50 guerrillas and injuring 100. The security forces took control of the rebels' Iranamadu Junction on Thursday morning, shortly after capturing the LTTE's strategic Paranthan town.
There was no word from the Tigers about the latest clashes or about the possible casualties on their side.\n\n
Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, who was sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment in Sri Lanka for links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has received two prestigious international awards. Global Media Forum and the US branch of Reporters Without Borders on Monday announced that Tissainayagam has been selected as winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. The award would be presented in October.
Running short of ammunition, particularly heavy-calibre artillery and mortars, the LTTE will try to tap the supplies from their South Indian hideouts
"Over 80 per cent of the war against the LTTE has been completed after regaining 80 per cent of the areas under them and killing over 12,000 of their cadres," Lieutenant General Fonseka said. Fonseka's remarks came on Monday as the troops reached about seven kilometres south of Kilali lagoon which separates the Jaffna peninsula from the mainland.
The blast is supposed to have been triggered by an army unit.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters were dressed in Indian army uniforms during the final battles of the nearly three-decade long civil war, former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has said.
The United States on Friday asked Sri Lanka to speed up its probe into allegations of rights abuses during the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, resume talks with Tamil parties on power sharing and reduce the role of the military in the former conflict zone.
The Lankan president threatened serious action if the LTTE does not stop the killings.
In the first post war elections in Sri Lanka after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a pro-Tiger party on Sunday won the municipal poll in Vavuniya, an indication that the separatists still attract popular support, even as President Mahinda Rajapaksa's coalition won the prestigious Jaffna local elections.
The LTTE certainly did not expect to fade into oblivion, their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran a fugitive. A couple of years ago, the Tigers were rampant, scoring victories on land and sea, and terrorising Colombo with their makeshift air force. What turned things around? Probably much covert aid from governments, including India's, wary of the Tigers' propensity for redrawing boundaries by force
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday spoke to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who is on an indefinite fast in support of his demand for immediate ceasefire in the Sri Lankan army's offensive against the LTTE.
A day after Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi stated that he viewed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo V Prabhakaran as a 'friend', Sri Lanka on Monday said that the Tamil Nadu chief minister was trying to exploit the issue for electoral gains. "Mr Karunanidhi is a Chanakya. He knows what to say and when -- not that he is not aware of Prabhakaran's attitude," Minister for Social Service Welfare Douglas Devananda said.
India must recognise our freedom struggle: LTTE
The situation in Sri Lanka, where thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's strongholds, permeated the 45-minute discussion on Monday between United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. This was the first high-level interaction between India and the Obama administration in Washington.
With the beleaguered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam confined to a small area of 4.5 sq kms, Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has said the troops are consolidating their positions despite heavy attacks from remnant rebel cadres in the north, where at least 21 guerrillas were killed in intense clashes.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna arrived in Colombo on Thursday on a four-day official visit to boost up bilateral relations, amid growing Chinese footprints in Sri Lanka.
For the LTTE to be able to stage a come-back one, it needs a beach-head out of the reach of the Sri Lankan armed forces where it can re-group, re-train and re-plan and wait for an opportunity to strike back.
The LTTE chief's parents were settled in Tiruchirapalli.
He asked the India government and the people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, seeking his urgent intervention in the Sri Lankan issue.
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