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LTTE arms moved overland from China to NK for almost a decade by Shamindra Ferdinando Chinese arms consignments for the LTTE had been moved overland to North Korea across the China-North Korea border before being transferred to the terrorist group’s ‘floating’ warehouses on the high seas close to Indonesia, for about a decade, The Island learns. The LTTE had obtained its first Chinese arms consignment way back in 1994/1995 during the then People’s Alliance (PA) administration. On-going inquiries, well informed sources said, revealed that the China-North Korea overland transport of arms for the LTTE had operated for almost a decade...

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

"Face -to-face with a human bomb A Sri Lankan journalist tries to find out why a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber would want to blow himself up" SNIPPET: "Earlier this year, I found myself seated face-to-face with a would-be suicide bomber, the most dreaded weapon in the arsenal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- better known as the Tamil Tigers. Until their battlefield defeat earlier this year, the LTTE dreamed that their long campaign of terrorism would help them carve an independent Tamil homeland out of northern and eastern Sri Lanka. As we talked, I felt comfortable in...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil Tiger rebels have named a man accused of running a vast arms smuggling operation as their new leader, two months after government forces crushed the separatist movement. The new leader has pledged to remake the insurgents into a nonviolent separatist movement. Selvarasa Pathmanathan was the rebels' chief of international relations and allegedly ran an international weapons smuggling ring. The Sri Lankan government has appealed to foreign governments to find and arrest him. Pathmanathan "will lead us into the next steps of our freedom struggle according to the vision of our esteemed leader,"...

Bangkok, Thailand - Over two months after the bloody finale of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, a lingering row over civilian casualties continues to roil a fractured society. Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their final military push against Tamil Tiger rebels didn't target hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind enemy lines. But aid workers, church officials, and government doctors reported that heavy shelling had caused mass casualties. A preliminary United Nations report estimated that 7,000 had died between January and May. On Wednesday, however, a group of doctors who had provided dramatic firsthand accounts of civilian suffering in...

The rebel group's international relations chief, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, said in a recorded message that the organisation would continue to pursue its aim of a separate Tamil state despite the rout of its army and death of its leadership. "The struggle of people of Tamil Eelam [the separate state the Tigers fought for] has reached a new state," he said. "It is time now for us to move forward with our political vision towards our freedom." A Sri Lankan protester sets fire to a Tamil Tiger flag AFP reported that Mr Pathmanathan, who is better known as K.P. and worked as...

Mi 24s role in eelam war IV emphasised by Shamindra Ferdinando The Hingurakgoda-based Mi 24 helicopter gunship squadron played a critical role in the recently concluded eelam war IV with nearly 400 missions in the Northern and Eastern theatres. Known as the No 09 squadron, it had caused devastating losses in coordinated attacks directed at fortified LTTE positions situated close to what Wing Commander Sampath Thuycontha, Commanding Officer of the squadron called forward location of own troops.’ In an interview with The Island, the veteran flyer said that despite having a range of weapons, including dedicated anti-aircraft guns the LTTE...

... Mr. Rajapaksa, elected in 2005, finally put an end to the "peace process" with Prabhakaran and focused on winning the military fight. In 2007, with the help of a Tiger splinter group, the government subdued the Eastern Province; the first elections were held there last year. The fighting then moved to the North. It has not been cheap or easy. Military spending in the 2009 budget is $1.7 billion, 5% of GDP and 20% of the government's budget. ...

At different times Velupillai Prabhakaran’s admirers made absurd attempts to compare VP with George Washington, Mao Ze Dong and other great historical leaders. Many of his enemies however were calling this despicable gangster him another Hitler. But by doing so they gave this cowardly criminal undue recognition – even though in a negative sense. But VP is far more conceited than the Nazi dictator ever was. While the latter merely called himself the `Fuehrer’ (Leader), Prabhakaran has become the self-styled ‘Sooriyathevan’ (Sun God). So the despot who is closest to Velupillai P is not Hitler or any other dictator but...

Rajiv: The Tiger chief's big mistake Seema Guha Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:22 IST New Delhi: Prabhakaran made two fatal mistakes which brought about his downfall. One was his complete isolation from the rest of the world and the decision to eliminate former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. In 1991, Indian reporters visiting Jaffna were flooded with questions from LTTE leaders about the chances of the Congress returning to power. The thinking was: If Rajiv is elected, his first priority would be to avenge the humiliation suffered by the IPKF -- when ex-president Premadasa and Prabhakaran got together to throw...

Tiger dead, a secret spills SUJAN DUTTA New Delhi, May 18: Sri Lanka’s military triumph over the LTTE that peaked with the announcement of Prabhakaran’s death today was possible with active assistance — including a defined naval deployment against the Sea Tigers — from India. The aid increased steadily this year but New Delhi asked Colombo to keep it quiet till the election was over. The Indian military assistance came on a specific request from the Sri Lankan government. The first military medical mission was despatched in April. But far more significant than that benign assistance was the deployment of...

Reporting from New Delhi -- In a sign of its growing confidence, Sri Lanka on Monday issued an ultimatum calling on Tamil rebels to surrender or perish after the army reportedly breached a major defensive barrier, paving the way for tens of thousands of civilians to make a run for it. Troops captured an additional square-mile area of the rebels' shrinking terrain Monday, freeing about 19,000 civilians trapped by the fighting, while the navy freed 2,165 people as more fled in other directions, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. By some reports, as many as 35,000 noncombatants fled the hotly...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg22.htm February 11, 2009 TG-22 Treasury Targets U.S. Front for Sri Lankan Terrorist Organization Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today targeted the support network of the Sri Lanka-based designated terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by designating the U.S.-based Tamil Foundation under Executive Order 13224. Executive Order 13224 targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. "The LTTE, like other terrorist groups, has relied on so-called charities to raise funds and advance its violent aims," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Treasury's...

January 27, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo012709b.htm FOUR DEFENDANTS PLEAD GUILTY TO ALL CHARGES, INCLUDING CONSPIRING TO ACQUIRE ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES AND PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT TO THE LTTE, A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION Defendants Were Caught in an FBI Undercover Sting Operation Attempting to Purchase Surface-to-Air Missiles, Missile Launchers, and Hundreds of AK-47 Automatic Rifles Earlier today, in the midst of jury selection at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, defendants Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam and Sahilal Sabaratnam pled guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a designated foreign terrorist organization,...

Jan. 2, 2009 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Government forces captured the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital in northern Sri Lanka on Friday, dealing a devastating blow to the rebels' quarter-century fight for an independent state, the president said.

The terrorists who attacked Mumbai had come from the sea. This serves as a reminder to us that the LTTE has in years past tried to penetrate our harbours and Colombo has always been a target. (...) Whenever there was military action against the LTTE by the Sri Lankan forces, LTTE had two cards to play. First relates to violation of human rights by the armed forces, which resonates well with the West. That also helps LTTE immensely as foreign governments tend to make their bilateral assistance to Sri Lanka conditional to good governance by GSOL. The second was the...

RAMESWARAM: Three more abandoned boats were found drifting in the coast on Friday raising suspicion among officials that the LTTE militants, involved in a fierce battle with Sri Lankan army in the island's north, were sneaking into Tamil Nadu. The boats found abandoned were located at Arichalmunai, Erandam and Moondram theedai. Earlier six boats, some with bullet marks and blood stains, were found abandoned off Rameswaram and Nagapattinam coasts on Thursday. So many "mysterious" abandoned boats had been found. There was no chance for so many boats to drift to the Indian shores. The only possibility was that someone should...

Link "Pakistan told Indian officials to look into all aspects, including an LTTE or Al-Qaeda connection. Pakistan also informed India that some of the terrorists appeared to be South Indians and looked like LTTE cadres. India investigated every angle," the official said. London's Pakistani High Commissioner in an interview told BBC over the weekend that some of the terrorists looked very much like South Indians. From Sir Lanka Ministry of Defence ....... A little known terror outfit "Deccan Mujahideen" has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Anti-terrorist operations are continuing as Indian security forces take on the formidable mission to...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

COLOMBO, June 6 (Reuters) - Several people were killed and others injured in bus explosion during the morning rush hour in a suburb of the Sri Lankan capital on Friday, police said. "There was an explosion in a bus at Moratuwa, a few people were killed and some injured," said police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara. (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Valerie Lee)

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A suicide bomber attacked the opening ceremony of a marathon outside Sri Lanka's capital Sunday, killing a government minister and 11 other people, authorities said. Dozens were wounded. Officials blamed the bombing, the second this year resulting in the death of a senior government official, on Tamil Tiger rebels. Minister of Highways and Road Development Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was opening the race at Weliweriya town, 12 miles outside Colombo. He died in a hospital of injuries sustained in the blast, said government spokesman Lakshman Hulugalla, blaming Tamil rebels. Eleven others were killed—including former Olympic marathoner K.A....

Sri Lanka Sank 6 N. Korean Ships Carrying Weapons between this Feb. and Oct. 12/14/2007 Sohn Ji-heun /begin my summary Six N. Korean ships were sunk by Sri Lankan Navy between Feb. 28 and late October of this year. They were shipping weapons for Tamil Tigers, which were designated as a terrorist organization by U.S. State Dept. Both N. Korean crews and Tamil terrorists were aboard the ships. They were all presumed to be killed. Sri Lankan Navy was able to sink them with the help of U.S., which passed on intelligence on the location of (N. Korean) ships in...

[Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence] NEW JERSEY / SRI LANKA - LTTE Heavily Involved In Fund Raising For Hilary Clinton In New Jersey "Well known activists of a banned terrorist group in the United States are involved in the fund raising activities of the US Democratic candidate Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton" "According to a fundraising web site for the Senator, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activists are involved in raising funds from 100 Dollars to 2300 Dollars to help elect Senator Clinton as the next United States President. The website could be reached at: https://contribute.hillaryclinton.com/events/nj1212.html " "The terrorist group,...

'Rajiv Gandhi ordered army to bump off LTTE chief' Vishal Thapar / CNN-IBN New Delhi: A former Indian Peace Keeping Force Commander has claimed in a book that Rajiv Gandhi had ordered the killing of LTTE chief Prabhakaran at the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord in 1987, well before the hostilities had broken out in October that year. According to the book, Intervention in Sri Lanka, the instructions for the hatchet job were conveyed by JN Dixit, India's envoy in Sri Lanka at that time. The author, Major General Harkirat Singh, says, “I got a call from the...

Commentary: Is Malaysia going the Sri Lankan way? MANIPAL, India, Dec. 5 M.D. NALAPAT Column: Future Present Like the Pakistan army, which has jihad as its official motto, the rulers of Malaysia claim to represent the "moderate" face of Islam. However, ever since former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad introduced Wahabbism Lite into Malaysia in 1981, the practice of discriminating against all other creeds has evolved. Across Malaysia today there is a rolling back of the 2,000-year-old culture of the Malays, brought with the Chola and Srivijaya kings from India. In place of this tolerant and syncretic tradition -- which is...

This is an amazing video of a LTTE suicide bomber blowing herself up in an attempt to kill a local government employee at the Human Services Ministry in Sri Lanka. LTTE is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Dept. Amazing thing is that Senator Leakey Leahy has criticized the Sri Lankan government for trying to combat these homicidal terrorists. Video

Men face terrorism charges after raids The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have arrested two men in Melbourne in connection with alleged terrorism. The AFP, along with Victoria Police, staged raids on eight locations in Melbourne and two in Sydney this morning. In Melbourne, a 32-year-old Mount Waverley man has been charged with three offences related to being a member of a terrorist organisation, and knowingly making funds available to an terrorist organisation. A 36-year-old man from Vermont South is expected to charged later this afternoon. AFP Assistant Commissioner, Frank Prendergast, says the activities are allegedly connected to the Sri Lankan...

Tigers exploit flaws in Lankan air defence PK Balachandran, Hindustan Times Colombo, April 30, 2007 They are like David and Goliath. The Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) has a fair sized fleet of Kfir, MIG 27 and Y-8 bombers, MI-17 and MI-24 choppers, and AN-32 transport aircraft. In contrast, the LTTE's air arm, christened Tamileelam Air Force (TUF), is a puny, single digit fleet of propeller-driven and locally assembled Zlin Z-142s of Czech design. And yet, the fledgling Flying Tigers have been able to infiltrate hundreds of kilometres of government-held territory, attack key military and strategic targets, and get back...

WASHINGTON -- Chicago congressman Danny Davis and an aide took a trip to Sri Lanka last year that was paid for by the Tamil Tigers, a group that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, law enforcement sources said. Davis' seven-day trip came under new scrutiny this week following the arrests of 11 supporters of the organization on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to support the terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery of U.S. officials. The five-term Democratic congressman said he was unaware that...

RCMP raids Toronto Tamil offices Tigers outlawed as a terrorist group Toronto Star Surya Bhattacharya and Michelle Shephard April 23, 2006 Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers raided the Scarborough and Toronto offices of the World Tamil Movement yesterday, sealing off the building with yellow police tape and carting off boxes of documents. Police hit offices at 39 Consentino Dr. in Scarborough, and later yesterday the community Tamil radio station reported a similar raid on the Toronto office on Eaton Ave., near Wellesley and Parliament Sts. in downtown Toronto. The World Tamil Movement maintains a third office here at 1231 Ellesmere...

Excerpt - NEW YORK (Reuters) - The suspected head of the U.S. branch of Sri Lankan rebel group the Tamil Tigers was arrested in New York on Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Karunakaran Kandasamy could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors at the federal court in the New York borough of Brooklyn said. As the director of the U.S. branch of the Tamil Tigers, which is based in Queens, New York, Kandasamy oversaw the organization's activities, including its fund-raising, prosecutors said. The rebels, known officially as the Liberation Tigers...

While the users of suicide bombers may not have noticed, the track record of such tactics shows that it doesn't work. In fact, this particular weapon actually backfires. Consider the facts. The Tamil separatists of Sri Lanka (the LTTE) pioneered the modern use of suicide bombers over twenty years ago. The LTTE was particularly effective at attacking senior politicians and security officials. But each attack just made their opponents angrier. The LTTE is now being defeated, partly by an enraged Sri Lankan population, and partly dissention and demoralization within their own ranks. Hizbollah was the next to pick up on...

Sri Lanka: ambassadors Italian and US wounded in a rebellious offensive COLOMBO - The ambassadors American and Italian in Sri Lanka were wounded Tuesday in an offensive with artillery carried out by rebels tamouls supposed in the east of the island, indicated to AFP the minister human rights Mahinda Samarasinghe. The ambassador Robert Blake and his Italian counterpart Prio Mariani were touched by glares of shells which struck the landing strip of the air base of Batticaloa at the time when the diplomats left a military helicopter, specified the Samarasinghe minister. Mr. Mariani was touched with the head, without...

December 3, 2006: In the United States, a federal judge has ruled that the President does not have the authority to designate certain organizations as terrorist groups. This ruling is the latest round of lawfare against the war on terror. In this case, two foreign terrorist organizations, the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elan (LTTE), were the beneficiaries of this suit. Why is this case, filed on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project, important? After all, a number of human rights groups have still been waging lawfare, largely on behalf of al Qaeda. This suit...

ALARM - Sri Lanka: "vast offensive" of the army COLOMBO - the Sri Lankian army launched Wednesday a "vast offensive" against the rebellion tamoule in the septentrional peninsula of Jaffna, announced the guerrilla.

Colombo (dpa) - Eleven Muslim civilians were hacked to death with swords in eastern Sri Lanka, military officials said Monday, adding that they suspected Tamil rebels were behind the attack. However, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) denied it was responsible and blamed government troops for the massacre. The military has a long tradition of blaming the separatist rebels for its own atrocities, the LTTE charged. The victims were employed to repair a dam in an irrigation canal in Panama, Potuvil, 340 kilometres east of Colombo, when they were abducted, military officials said. The men had gone missing on...

HYDERABAD: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were frequent visitors to Andhra Pradesh prior to 1996 and they even trained the Maoists on guerrilla warfare, highly-placed sources in the police department have revealed to TOI. Expert fighters from the LTTE reportedly visited a camp held in the Nallamala forests in November 1996 to train Maoists. Though it was their last visit to the state, the sources said that since then the LTTE and CPI (Maoist) have developed a friendship that continues even today. They continue to share ideas, tactics and even literature. However, they have stopped exchanging weapons...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- The Sri Lankan army said 28 soldiers were killed and 119 were wounded while battling the Tamil Tiger rebels in Jaffna, located in the northern tip of the country, late Saturday evening, Sri Lanka police inspector Percy Perera said. An estimated 150 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were also killed, with more wounded, Perera said. The exact number of wounded was not immediately available, he said.

Toronto Police are still probing any possible link between an alleged debit-card scam they broke up over the weekend and an FBI-led international terror investigation that involved 13 suspects in Canada and the U.S. last week believed to be procuring arms for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Five men were arrested in Toronto on Saturday, allegedly in the act of emptying victims' accounts using stolen information obtained through a compromised debit machine, said Detective Sergeant Stephen Craddock. Between May and this past week, he said the ring is suspected of bilking a still-uncalculated amount from thousands of users of...

Further Arrests Made in LTTE Charges(Toronto, ON - Wednesday August 23, 2006) Last evening, Tuesday August 22, 2006, at approx.1800 hrs, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested another person under authority of a provisional warrant in Canada. The arrest is further to the joint operation involving the RCMP and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the alleged activities surrounding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE). Canadian resident, Ramanan MYLVAGANAM, age 29, was arrested under the provisional warrant is awaiting extradition to the US. MYLVAGANAM appeared in court in Brampton today and has been remanded to Friday This...

Waterloo man held in Tamil Tiger missile plot DIANNE WOOD, BRIAN CALDWELL AND BRIAN WHITWHAM BRENT DAVIS, RECORD STAFF Suresh Sriskandarajah is led from Superior Court in Kitchener yesterday. He is among 4 Canadians arrested in connection with an attempt to buy arms from an undercover agent. KITCHENER (Aug 23, 2006) A man from Waterloo is one of nine suspects accused of conspiring to help a terrorist group in an escalating conflict in Sri Lanka. Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, made an unexpected appearance in Superior Court in Kitchener yesterday and was remanded in custody until Friday morning. The former University of...

The FBI says it's all part of an ongoing investigation into a group of Sri Lankans with terrorist plans. The FBI says there were no plans to attack Americans, but that the group, known as the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" was targeting their home country of Sri Lanka. Officials say that terror group is responsible for assassinating a former prime minister of India. The Joint Terrorism Task Force raided the Amherst home. Neighbors say three men were taken out in handcuffs. They say the task force also removed files, a computer and suitcases. While it's not clear what role...

Ottawa - August 21, 2006— In recent days, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has executed two search warrants and arrested one person under authority of a provisional warrant in Canada. The arrest is part of a joint operation involving the RCMP and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Canadian resident, Suresh Sriskandarajah, age 26, arrested under the provisional warrant is awaiting extradition to the U.S. Generally speaking, the RCMP does not reveal details regarding operational police matters in order to protect the privacy rights of individuals; to protect our investigations; and most importantly, to protect all Canadians. Nevertheless, the...

Three Canadian citizens travelled to New York to buy anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns and other military weapons for the Tamil Tigers terrorist organization, the U.S. government alleges after unveiling a wide anti-terrorism sting operation yesterday. At least eight people were arrested in the United States on the weekend by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and another man was arrested in Ontario yesterday by the RCMP. Two search warrants were also executed in Southern Ontario as part of the joint U.S.-Canada counterterrorism investigation. Authorities say the probe tracked a series of in-person meetings, e-mail exchanges and telephone conversations as representatives...

SIMSBURY -- Federal agents arrested a 54-year-old town man Monday as part of a national sting operation that arrested at least 13 individuals and charged them with conspiring to provide support to the terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Federal authorities charged Nachimuthu Socrates with conspiring to bribe public officials and conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is also known as the "LTTE" or "Tamil Tigers."

NEW DELHI: A Sri Lankan Tamil girl who braved choppy seas for five long hours to flee to India is making waves with her two parrots, but cats at the refugee camp are posing fresh threats to her pets and giving her sleepless nights. Like thousands of others before her, Nishanthini Lombert, 15, came to Tamil Nadu, crossing the rough sea dividing the two countries in a fishing vessel that was packed with 18 people and battered suitcases with their belongings. The group included her parents and three brothers and the birds, which were put into a cardboard box to...

Five killed and Sri Lankan Army Chief injured in LTTE suicide bomb attack ... Air force launnhes strikes on LTTE

Many killed after Sri Lanka blast There has been a sharp increase in violence in Trincomalee (Photo: Dharmatasa Kantale) At least 14 people have been killed in a bomb attack and subsequent unrest in north-eastern Sri Lanka, police say. More than 40 others were injured in the blast in a Trincomalee market which brought mobs onto the streets. Shops and cars were torched before a curfew. Earlier, two policemen were killed and two hurt in a blast near the port town. Four blasts blamed on Tamil rebels, who deny involvement, have claimed more than 30 lives since Monday. Talks...

COLOMBO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan military said Tamil Tiger rebels blew themselves up on a trawler smuggling weapons on Saturday to avoid a search ahead of peace talks in Switzerland later this month, but the rebels denied involvement. A spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the trawler might have simply been an innocent Sri Lankan or Indian fishing boat. The rebels have routinely denied involvement in recent incidents. The military said one of its fast attack boats had intercepted a deep sea trawler heading for a rebel-held section of the island's northwest coast....