After air raids LTTE goes for a naval attack, casualities still to be confirmed

May 24: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE, the Tamil Tigers rebels, scaling up their activities, launched a naval attack on a Sri Lankan military base. The LTTE spokes person Rasiah Ilanthirayan claimed that they had entire naval base under their control and also threatened to continue air strike in near future. Sri Lankan military officials have confirmed that not more than 10 sailors have died in the recent attack.

In the early hours of this morning, the LTTE attacked and infiltrated the Sri Lankan naval base on Jaffna peninsula, in the north of the country. Declining on the LTTE’s claim of killing 35 sailors, a naval officer told reporters that LTTE attacked only a small naval regiment in which less than 10 sailors were killed and some more were injured.

However, neither the military nor the government of Sri Lanka has released a clear cut number of casualties. The military has also told that there has been an explosion in the capital, Colombo, early in the morning which resulted in wounding five people including four soldiers.

According to reports the blast took place near an army bus and two of the wounding persons are now in critical conditions. However, the LTTE has denied of any kind of links in this incident. Meanwhile, the defense personnel quoted about it as a propaganda of LTTE.

The Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting since 1970 to create a separate state with Tamil ethnic minorities in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Though both parties came to an agreement of a cease-fire in March 2002 but military strikes still continues on a regular basis.

In 2002, LTTE for the first time demanded a separate state and advocated a regional autonomy. The government of Norway was able in bringing both the parties to a cease-fire. However, the government of Sri Lanka has been accusing LTTE of creating violence after ceasefire.

Since then there have been several rounds of talks between the Singhalese majority Sri Lankan government and the rebels, with not much positive outcome. However, after presidential elections of2005, the newly elected Mahinda Rajapaksa followed a strict policy on LTTE. This further widened the interest of both parties.

This civil war in Sri Lanka has already claimed more than 70,000 lives within two decades of struggle in the northern part of Island. Sri Lankan government claimed to have killed more than 500 rebels in the last four months.