Sri Lankan troops kill senior Tamil rebel leader

Sri Lankan soldiers shot dead a senior Tamil Tiger leader when troops pre-empted a rebel attack on a northern defence line, the military said today.

Insurgents were preparing to attack the defence line at Nagarkovil in Jaffna peninsula yesterday but were confronted by troops, triggering a fierce gunbattle, an official at the Defence Ministry information center said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.

He said soldiers confirmed that a senior rebel leader was killed in the fighting. The military did not give the name of the rebel leader.

There was no immediate comment from the Tamil rebels who have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils.

Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by majority Sinhalese-controlled governments, consider Jaffna their cultural heartland. The military has controlled the region since 1995, but the rebels operate underground and carry out frequent assassinations and bomb attacks there.

Last month, the government celebrated the recapture of the east from the rebels. The Tamil rebels still control a virtual state in the north. A Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002 brought relative calm to the country, but a new wave of violence that began in December 2005 has killed more than 5,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. Over 70,000 people have been killed in the two decades of violence.

(http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200708041758.htm)