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.
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.
The govt decided to recommend to the governor, the release of Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran, Robert Payas and Nalini, serving life imprisonment.
The victims were on their way to reinforce government troops battling Tamil Tiger rebels in the same area.
The air attack in the north came as the Tigers commemorated their war dead.
The three men were blown up while rigging an explosive device in the northern Periyarkulam village in the district of Vavuniya.
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.
A staunch supporter of slain LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran, he also criticised the former prime minister for sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka in the 1980s.
The mediators also praised India's role in the developments in the island nation.
Sri Lanka rules out Oslo, Norway as venue for truce talks with LTTE.
The blast is supposed to have been triggered by an army unit.
The Lankan president threatened serious action if the LTTE does not stop the killings.
The rebels attempted to breach the Muhamalai forward defence line in northern Lanka late on Wednesday night, leading to clashes between the Tigers and the army. While 14 rebels were gunned down by the security forces, seven were killed on Thursday.
The disclosure came as police reported that five more bullet-riddled bodies were found in the north-central district of Anuradhapura on Tuesday, 3 days after 5 other bodies bearing bullet injuries were found near the capital.
With the Tamil Tiger territory fast shrinking in northern Sri Lanka, the LTTE's second-in-command and spy chief Pottu Amman has assumed direct charge of the battle against the Sri Lankan security forces.
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 Navy exchanged fire with a flotilla of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the rebels attacked naval gunboats.
'Tamil Nadu is a state of temples, it's a holy land. People don't seem to realise that.'
"We will leave the government if the President does not withdraw the joint mechanism plan with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by June 15," the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or People's Liberation Front said.
The government claims that the tigers have two aircraft.
Sri Lankan troops are in full control of the airstrip from where Tamil Tigers launched many a surprise air raids deep into government controlled areas including the capital Colombo. Nothing is known about the fate of air force of the LTTE. Sri Lankan army liberated the sensitive Iranamadu, known for LTTE airstrips, located a few kilometers away from its defacto capital Kilinochchi. But apparently the Tigers had moved their Czech made fighters.
India plans to directly invite Sri Lankan ethnic parties, including the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Tamil National Alliance, for parleys to resolve the Tamil issue in the country, a media report has claimed, prompting the main opposition party to seek a clarification from the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's slain supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was jealous of educated people and wanted to destroy the Tamil intellectuals for his survival, a Tamil leader has claimed.
The captured Tiger rebel had arrived in the country on January 10 from Geneva in Switzerland, said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which made the arrest.
Citing terror threats from the outfit, Canada has banned the World Tamil Movement and freezed its assets. Two months ago, the federal police sought court nod to seize the WTM's bank accounts.
The cable, dated 15 January 2010, updated the Secretary of State on war crimes accountability following the end of the country's long and bloody conflict.
The Sri Lankan government on Thursday sought to assure India that its ongoing offensives on the Tamil Tiger stronghold of Kilinochchi was being carried out by following zero civilian casualty doctrine and all assistance was being provided to displaced Tamil civilians.
Officials said they suspected Tiger rebels were behind the killing. The base their suspicions on the fact that Tiger rebels had accused the military intelligence of supporting a breakaway rebel faction.
The United Nations has sought an explanation from Sri Lanka on the death of three top Tamil Tiger leaders after former Army chief Sarath Fonseka alleged that surrendering Tamil rebels were killed in cold blood.
With the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam wiped out, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday offered equal rights for Tamils through a political solution, but stressed that it won't be 'imported'. He said the government does not accept the military solution as final and that his aim was to provide equal rights to all communities. Rajapaksa said it was necessary to give the Tamil people the freedoms that are the right of people in all other parts of the country.
India played an instrumental role in ensuring the holding of polls in Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated Northern Province and it must now assist in rebuilding the war-ravaged region, newly elected Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said on Tuesday
A leading Tamil Tiger leader Rasiah Ilanthriyan was believed to have been killed as Sri Lankan troops continued their march into the rapidly shrinking areas held by the rebels. The offensive is bringing army troops almost to a face to face confrontation with the Tiger top brass. But, the pace of advance appears to have been slowed down by heavy mining and fear of large scale civilian casualties.
According to new estimates, as many as 2057 Tamil civilians have quit the LTTE areas and sought refuge with the Sri Lankan Army in the last few days and International Red Cross has rushed in more staff to Wanni region to cope up with the challenging task of rehabilitating them.
From damsels versus dragons to showbiz shenanigans, ready to catch all the action on OTT this week?
The Sri Lankan army's hopes to crush Tamil Tigers and end Asia's longest running civil war are still not around the corner, a media report said. 'Peace still will not be easy or, despite recent good news, immediate. The Tigers may still be able to carry out some terror attacks, though they no longer pose a wide-scale threat. And Colombo faces questions about its commitment to a permanent political settlement,' a Wall Street Journal report said.
Unfazed by the recent reverses, the Tamil Tigers on Sunday hinted an escalation in their military offensive against the Sri Lankan government even as they accused India and other countries of being "indecisive" in taking a stand on the ethnic strife in the island country.
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