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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>
NEW DELHI, Nov. 2 — The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan separatist group known for suicide attacks on political and military targets, lost their most prominent international representative today when the head of their political wing was killed in an airstrike by the Sri Lankan military, according to the guerrilla group.</p>
The Tamil Tigers announced the death of the leader, S. P. Tamilselvan, along with those of five associates, in a news release issued early afternoon Sri Lanka time. The Sri Lankan military said he had been killed in Air Force strikes on an area called Thirivearu, near the rebel garrison of Kilinochchi, where the military said senior rebel leaders had gathered for a meeting. There was no independent verification available of exactly when he was killed, or where.</p>
The killing further ratcheted up the stakes in Sri Lanka’s renewed quarter-century-long ethnic conflict between the majority ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government and the rebels, also known as the L.T.T.E.. For over a year, a series of open military attacks and counterattacks, suicide bombings and mysterious abductions has left no pretense that a 2002 cease-fire agreement, which Mr. Tamilselvan had helped draft, still holds.</p>
The executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Policy Alternatives, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, said by telephone from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, that the assassination demonstrated the government’s “determined intent to prosecute a war and defeat the L.T.T.E.,” and so would vindicate the hard-liners on the rebel side.</p>
“They are now the mirror image of each other in every respect,” he said of the two sides. “They are both in zero-sum mode. I would imagine the L.T.T.E. will want to hit back.”</p>
The killing of Mr. Tamilselvan comes barely a week after a so-called Black Tiger suicide squad penetrated a military base in the central Sri Lankan city of Anuradhapura, killing 13 soldiers and destroying several military jets.</p>
Mr. Tamilselvan was the highest ranking Tamil Tiger official authorized to meet with foreign journalists and diplomats until the Sri Lankan government effectively blocked foreigners from crossing from government to rebel-held territory last year. He had walked with a limp, with the aid of a cane, since a 1993 battle injury.</p>
Sri Lankan state-run television news blamed Mr. Tamilselvan’s leadership for a string of bloody attacks on the Sri Lankan leaders, including former presidents and military leaders.</p>
His death leaves the organization with no internationally known figure beyond its its elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.</p>
Mr. Tamilselvan had also become chief negotiator for the rebel side since the group’s self-described ideologue, Anton S. Balasingham, fell ill and then died of cancer last December. But the sides have shown little desire to negotiate for some time.</p>
After four years of lull, heavy fighting began in earnest in July, 2006, with a battle for the country’s multiethnic east. Tamil Tigers dug from their usual arsenal, setting off remote-controlled land mines and suicide bombers, killing suspected political rivals and forcibly recruiting ethnic Tamils into its fighting cadres, including children. Last March, they unveiled a new weapon: crudely assembled fighter planes, which conducted its first confirmed air raid on a military base next to the Colombo international airport, killing three Sri Lankan troops.</p>
The government has continued its headlong march into war, despite stepped-up pressure on the government from abroad, including from the United States, one of its key allies.</div></p>
Source: NY Times</p>
NEW DELHI, Nov. 2 — The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan separatist group known for suicide attacks on political and military targets, lost their most prominent international representative today when the head of their political wing was killed in an airstrike by the Sri Lankan military, according to the guerrilla group.</p>
The Tamil Tigers announced the death of the leader, S. P. Tamilselvan, along with those of five associates, in a news release issued early afternoon Sri Lanka time. The Sri Lankan military said he had been killed in Air Force strikes on an area called Thirivearu, near the rebel garrison of Kilinochchi, where the military said senior rebel leaders had gathered for a meeting. There was no independent verification available of exactly when he was killed, or where.</p>
The killing further ratcheted up the stakes in Sri Lanka’s renewed quarter-century-long ethnic conflict between the majority ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government and the rebels, also known as the L.T.T.E.. For over a year, a series of open military attacks and counterattacks, suicide bombings and mysterious abductions has left no pretense that a 2002 cease-fire agreement, which Mr. Tamilselvan had helped draft, still holds.</p>
The executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Policy Alternatives, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, said by telephone from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, that the assassination demonstrated the government’s “determined intent to prosecute a war and defeat the L.T.T.E.,” and so would vindicate the hard-liners on the rebel side.</p>
“They are now the mirror image of each other in every respect,” he said of the two sides. “They are both in zero-sum mode. I would imagine the L.T.T.E. will want to hit back.”</p>
The killing of Mr. Tamilselvan comes barely a week after a so-called Black Tiger suicide squad penetrated a military base in the central Sri Lankan city of Anuradhapura, killing 13 soldiers and destroying several military jets.</p>
Mr. Tamilselvan was the highest ranking Tamil Tiger official authorized to meet with foreign journalists and diplomats until the Sri Lankan government effectively blocked foreigners from crossing from government to rebel-held territory last year. He had walked with a limp, with the aid of a cane, since a 1993 battle injury.</p>
Sri Lankan state-run television news blamed Mr. Tamilselvan’s leadership for a string of bloody attacks on the Sri Lankan leaders, including former presidents and military leaders.</p>
His death leaves the organization with no internationally known figure beyond its its elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.</p>
Mr. Tamilselvan had also become chief negotiator for the rebel side since the group’s self-described ideologue, Anton S. Balasingham, fell ill and then died of cancer last December. But the sides have shown little desire to negotiate for some time.</p>
After four years of lull, heavy fighting began in earnest in July, 2006, with a battle for the country’s multiethnic east. Tamil Tigers dug from their usual arsenal, setting off remote-controlled land mines and suicide bombers, killing suspected political rivals and forcibly recruiting ethnic Tamils into its fighting cadres, including children. Last March, they unveiled a new weapon: crudely assembled fighter planes, which conducted its first confirmed air raid on a military base next to the Colombo international airport, killing three Sri Lankan troops.</p>
The government has continued its headlong march into war, despite stepped-up pressure on the government from abroad, including from the United States, one of its key allies.</div></p>
Source: NY Times</p>
