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Huge arms seizure in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: At least four LTTE cadres were killed and a “large stock of weapons” was seized by security forces in the north and east during the last 24 hours amid stepped up security measures in view of the “Black Tigers Day”.

“Black Tigers” are the LTTE’s suicide cadres and it was on July 5, 1987 that the group launched its first attack. A suicide cadre known drove a truck bomb into an army camp in the Jaffna peninsula killing 40 soldiers.

The Tigers observe the day as “Black Tigers Day” and according to the LTTE’s claims 322 members of the suicide units have died in attacks till date. In 2006, the group deployed 61 suicide bombers.

On the eastern front, police commandos clashed with a group of LTTE cadres in the Ampara district on Wednesday night. During the subsequent search, the troops found two bodies along with two T-56 riffles and three hand grenades. The STF suffered no casualties, the military said.

Military spokesperson Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the security forces were engaged in capturing satellite camps in the Narakamulla and Tharavi areas. His office said the fall of the last stronghold of the LTTE in the eastern province was imminent as the security forces had already reached the outer boundaries of the LTTE main base at Narakamulla.

Separately, TamilNet claimed that a Karuna Group paramilitary member was killed and two Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) personnel were wounded when the two groups, attached to the Kommaathu’rai army base in Chengkaladi in Batticaloa, clashed on Wednesday evening.

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