The Ceylon News

Mullaittivu (Sri Lanka), Jan 28: On the hunt for elusive Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan security forces have stumbled upon a damaged bullet-proof car that could have been used here by either LTTE chief or other senior rebel leaders.

The rugged-looking covered pick up wagon, fitted with double steel sheets to escape bullet hits, was found in thick jungles near here as Lankan forces scour the area for the LTTE topmen, a senior defence official told here.

It is a crude improvised version of a bullet-proof vehicle, unlike the new technologically advanced bullet-proof cars available off the shelf, he said.

"It was perhaps used by the senior LTTE leaders," Nandana Udawattee, the Brigadier commanding the specialised 59 division of the army, explained and said in previous encounters too, the Lankan forces had come across such vehicles in battles.

The military feels that as the battle to the finish intensifies, some of the Tiger leaders including Prabhakaran were believed to have been using the such vehicles to coordinate operations as also to escape attack or injury.

In November, Lankan troops had fired on a passing such vehicle killing the LTTE cadre at the wheel.

The Lankan Army thinks that these crude bullet-proof vehicles were brought ashore in freight ships.

The defence official said the drawback of these vehicles was that they became heavier and slower in movement due to heavy steel plates that slowed them down.

During the battles to capture the main town of Mullaittivu, the army also recovered an improvised mortar launcher.