As Sri Lankan forces step up attacks to take control of a key Tamil Tigers' stronghold, the government has ruled out any ceasefire and asked the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam to lay down arms and surrender.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacked army defence lines between Mannar and Vavuniya districts since Saturday night inflicting heavy losses.
Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka, the architect of the military offensive that led to the annihilation of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam, quit his post on Thursday and is widely tipped to be the opposition candidate for the presidential elections next year.
The claim came a day after the Tiger rebels blew up an army bus in Colombo, killing one soldier, and overran a naval base where they claimed 35 sailors died.
Arumugam (named changed) told a team of visiting journalists at a fortified building in Jaffna that houses the former LTTE cadres that the LTTE chief was quite regular in attending training camps and used to personally supervise their programmes. "I worked for the LTTE for almost six years and was classified as a Black Sea Tiger," Arumugam told the journalists.
The Sri Lankan government has taken steps to ensure that the top Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leadership, including its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, from fleeing the country amidst fears that the Tamil Tigers could use their recently acquired aircraft to make their gateway.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam today virtually conceded that its de-facto capital Kilinochchi has fallen to the Sri Lankan Army, saying that the security forces have entered a "virtual ghost town" as the whole infrastructure of Tamil Tigers have shifted to the northeast.
The Softbank-backed company has set a price band of Rs 72 to Rs 76 per share for the maiden share sale and is expected to test the appetite for new-age loss-making companies.
The President is seeking an end to the spurt of violence.
Tamil Tigers and their supremo V Prabhakaran are facing imminent defeat at Kilinochchi as the Sri Lankan army is on the verge of overrunning Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's defacto capital, former top LTTE commander Karuna Amman has said.In an interview to state owned Independent Television Network, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, once the second in command in the LTTE, said the rebel leader was about to be "punished for his insensate crimes".
Sri Lanka's former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe has rubbished the government's claim that the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam rebels are on the verge of being brought down to its knees saying there are still 15,000 armed Tamil tigers left.
India has once again pressed for the devolution of powers to the provinces under the 13th amendment (13A) of the Sri Lankan constitution and the system of provincial councils as a meaningful step towards better representation of the island's Tamil minority.
'There is no clarity in the government's offer,' the LTTE said. 'It does not specifically address the concerns raised by the Tigers.'
A man handed over a parcel to the bag counter of the store before entering, and a few minutes later, walked out without collecting it from the counter, sources said quoting shop assistants.
At least 65 Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers were killed as Sri Lankan troops continued their offensive on the heartland of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, claiming that they have captured major portions of the key Mallavi town in Kilinochchi.Security forces marched into the town after heavy overnight fighting, which spilled over to today morning as government troops cleared major portions of the small town.
Britain and Norway made a last minute bid to save the lives of two Tamil Tiger leaders but in vain as Sri Lankan troops closed in, the media reported on Saturday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's political chief, B Nadesan, and peace secretariat head, S Pulidevan, had attempted to surrender, The Daily Telegraph said, in a report quoting Vijay Nambiar, the United Nation Secretary-General's envoy.The men were later found dead.
For the first time in Tamil Nadu, a lion has died of coronavirus while nine others in the pride have tested positive for the infection at a zoo near Chennai, an official said.
The Human Rights Watch called on both the Government and LTTE to allow thousands of civilians to flee the war zone. The rights group said the civilians in the area were at garve risk from the fighting.
The move follows the EU's decision to ban the LTTE as a terrorist organisation last month.
While refusing to hazard a guess on the time frame for liberating the entire northern Sri Lanka from the rebels, Army Chief Sarath Fonseka said he had been given another one year extension beginning January 2009 and the period is enough to completely clear the LTTE held areas.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Saturday sunk a Sri Lankan naval logistic ship at the Trincomalee harbour with the Tiger rebels claiming it was the handiwork of their commandos from 'Kangkai Amaran unit'. "An under-water explosion damaged and caused logistic vessel A-520 (MV Invincible) to sink at 2.15 am on Saturday while moored at the Ashroff jetty in Trincomalee harbour," a Sri Lankan Navy statement said.
Over 26 Tamil Tiger rebels and one soldier were killed in fresh clashes between government troops and the guerrillas in the restive northern Sri Lanka, the military said on Monday.
A suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide bomber blew himself up when troops surrounded him in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula, where two Tamil Tiger rebels and a soldier were killed in separate incidents, the army said in Colombo on Monday.
Eighty-two Tamil Tigers were killed by security forces in Sri Lanka's north, including 51 who died in an army raid on a key Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam base, as fighter jets pounded another area in the embattled region targeting a rebel gathering, officials said on Thursday. The rebel toll in Wednesday's attack on the LTTE-held Vidattaltivu town in Mannar, which was captured by security forces, reached 51, according to the military.
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Thursday suspended a contentious deal between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to disburse billions of dollars of foreign aid to tsunami survivors.
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.
"Despite heightened ground confrontations between troops and LTTE at the Wanni battle theatre, it was reported that three bombs were dropped by LTTE on Sunday at the military forward defence lines in Welioya at around 1.45 am," a defence spokesman said.
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its troops killed more than 100 Tamil Tigers while it lost 43 soldiers, with another 33 missing in action. The LTTE, however, claimed that at least 100 Sri Lankan troops were killed in the clashes and put their own losses at 16.
Sri Lanka's main Tamil party on Sunday secured a landslide win in the historic provincial council polls held after a gap of 25 years in the former Tamil Tigers-ruled northern province, an outcome expected to give limited autonomy to the Tamils after the end of decades of ethnic war.
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.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam deployed aircraft for the first time in a combat mission.
The blast inside the private bus, heading to Anuradhapura from Kandy, occurred at 7.05 am local time at a bus stand in Dambulla town, located 148 km from the capital Colombo, the army said.
"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 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.
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.
Vowing to continue the liberation struggle despite the death of LTTE's political head S P Thamilselvan in an aerial raid, Tamil Tigers' elusive supremo V Prabhakaran has said Sri Lankan security forces "cruelly killed the peace dove" by targeting the outfit's senior leader.
The Human Rights Watch, in a statement, expressed its deep concern for human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law committed by both sides since the renewal of major hostilities this year.
The LTTE said on Tuesday that they were entering talks although they had little confidence that the government will deliver on promises made to restore normality.
Asserting that Lankan military operations in Tamil-dominated northern areas were aimed at liberating the region from 'fascist and dictatorial control of LTTE terrorists' Colombo asked India not to be influenced by the 'malicious propaganda' of Tiger sympathisers.
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