Seriously violating the Ceasefire Agreement, the LTTE has attacked the Sri Lankan Army in the northern district of Jaffna, killing 13 soldiers over the last 48 hours.
It has also attacked the dissident Karuna group in the Eastern district of Amparai, killing a top commander, Iniyabharathy.
The attacks have taken place in the context of a volatile political situation in which the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE have taken diametrically opposite positions on how to solve the ethnic conflict in the country.
While President Mahinda Rajapaksa wants a solution within a "unitary" state, the LTTE and the Tamils want a "federal" state at the very minimum in lieu of full independence for their "Homeland" in the North-East.
After killing six Sri Lankan soldiers in Kondavil near Jaffna with a claymore mine on Sunday, the LTTE killed another seven in the same manner, in Irupalai near Jaffna, on Tuesday. Among the killed was an officer. One soldier was critically injured.
In an operation in Kanchikudichcha Aru in the Eastern district of Amparai on Tuesday, the LTTE killed Iniyabharathy, one of the top most commanders of the dissident Karuna group, which had broken away from the LTTE in March 2004, and had allegedly been working in collaboration with the Sri Lankan armed forces since then.
The Tamilnet website reported that three other cadres of the "paramilitary" group led by Iniyabharathi were also killed. They were identified as Suman from Eravur, Thevan from Kaluvankerny, and Suresh from Vavunathivu.
Tamilnet quoted the LTTE's Amparai district political wing leader Daya Mohan as saying that the "para military" group led by Iniyabharathy had been intending to ambush the LTTE and that the LTTE counter attacked.
According to Tamil sources, the attacks on the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna were in retaliation to the killing of two Tamil farmers in Neervely in Jaffna. It is not clear as to who killed the farmers. But the Tamils believe that the army or a pro-government paramilitary group had done it.
Asked if the LTTE was intent on breaking the ceasefire by these actions, a Sri Lankan military spokesman said: "We do not know their intentions yet."
On Monday, the United States condemned the killing of six Sri Lankan soldiers in Kondavil. US State Department's Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington that such violence was "inconsistent with LTTE claims to be committed to the peace process."
(http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1566166,000500020002.htm)
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