The Ceylon News

Colombo, Jan 29: A senior leader of the Tamil Tigers has been seriously injured in an attack by advancing government troops, a pro-rebel website said Thursday.

"A senior leader and special member of the LTTE K.V. Balakumaran was seriously injured during an attack by the Sri Lankan army at Udaiyarkattu area in Mullaitivu Monday and is admitted to the intensive care unit," pro-LTTE puthinam.com website report said.

The military is yet to comment on the report.

According to Tamil politicians, Balakumaran was formerly the leader of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) and joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in early 90s with a few hundred cadres.

A break-away group of the EROS led by Shankar Rajee is openly critical of its former leader Balakumaran and the LTTE.

Political sources said Balakumaran joined the Tamil militancy in the early 1980s after he was arrested by the police for allegedly aiding a Tamil militant group to carry out a major robbery at a bank he was working in.

Balakumaran is the second seniormost leader of the LTTE to be wounded after the beginning of the current phase of fierce clashes between the government troops and the LTTE since August 2006.

In November 2007, LTTE's former political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan was killed in an air raid by the Sri Lankan air force jets in Kilinochchi, which was captured by the troops in January this year after months of fierce fighting.

Thamilselvan, who had led several attacks against the security forces, was posthumously conferred rank of 'Brigadier' by the rebel leadership.

Carrying out a fight-to-finish campaign against the LTTE, the Sri Lankan army said last week that the 95 percent of the war against the LTTE is over and the rebels are now confined to a 300 square km area in the north-eastern Mullaitivu district where they were holding thousands of civilians as human shields.

London, Jan 29: The outlawed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) procured war-stores and raised funds for its activities in the UK, an ongoing trial of a 'prominent figure' in the Tamil community here has revealed.

Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, 52, a self-confessed member of LTTE, was found to have procured material, electric components and raised funds for the organisation banned in UK despite warnings by the authorities to stop his activities.

Some of the components he procured allegedly had "an obvious terrorist purpose", the court was told, though Chrishanthakumar, also known as Shanthan, has denied any conspiracy charges.

He is also charged with amassing a hoard of military equipment including machetes, combat boots, camouflage clothes, spades and handcuffs, The Daily Telegraph reported today.

Another charge alleged that he received terrorist documents including guides to underwater warfare systems, explosive ordnance disposal and mine clearance.

He is also accused of two further offences - receiving money and belonging to a proscribed organisation, namely the LTTE.

The five offences are alleged to have taken place between January 2003 and June 2007.

Three other men, Jegatheswaran Muraleetharan (Muralee), 46, and his brother, Jeyatheswaran Vythyatharan (Vithy), 40, from Powys, Wales, and Murugesu Jegatheeswaran (Jegan), 34, from Mitcham, south London, are charged with receiving electronic items for use in terrorism. All have denied the charges.

Fears for the safety of hundreds of thousands of people trapped in Sri Lanka's war zone are rising as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fight for survival against a resurgent Sri Lankan army. Skip related content

Here are some scenarios of what could happen next in one of Asia's longest running wars:

ARMY'S MARCH TO THE SEA:

This month alone, soldiers have run the Tigers out of their self-proclaimed capital Kilinochchi, the Jaffna Peninsula and the port of Mullaittivu, a major LTTE operations base.

When hostilities were reignited in 2006, the rebels held 15,000 square km (5,792 sq miles). Now, the army's commander, Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka, says they have only 300 square km (116 sq miles) of jungle and a diminishing stretch of the northeastern coast left.

Much as U.S. civil war Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman made the rebel Confederate army surrender by forcing them to all but jump in the sea at Savannah, Georgia, Fonseka is doing the same -- unless his troops seize the coast and surround the LTTE.

Since the Tigers have vowed not to give up and wear vials of cyanide around their necks in case of capture, surrender seems unlikely.

ARE THE TIGERS NOW TOOTHLESS?

Many analysts say the rebels are down to about 2,000 capable fighters and have little future as a conventional force against an army that has been built up and armed for the sole purpose of defeating them, after suffering past losses.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given his full backing to the military and the combat veterans behind its transformation, his brother Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Fonseka.

The LTTE still can carry out suicide bombings in the capital Colombo, and is blamed for one just after Kilinochchi fell.

Fonseka has said he expects the hardest-core Tigers to go underground and conduct hit-and-run attacks once the war nears its end. He also said the army was ready to counter that.

WHAT ABOUT CIVILIANS IN THE WAR ZONE?

Aid agencies estimate there are about 250,000 Tamil refugees in grave danger in the shrinking war zone, and the International Committee of the Red Cross says hundreds have been killed in exchanges of fire that struck hospitals.

Rights groups and the government accuse the Tigers of forcibly conscripting people as fighters or labourers and of keeping them trapped in the war zone. The LTTE denies that.

The army last week set up a safe zone and urged people to go there; they say the rebels responded by placing artillery and heavy weapons inside it to foil civilian movement.

The rebels in turn say Sri Lanka has deliberately hit the no-fire zone and is targeting civilians. The military denies that.

IS INDIA GOING TO INTERVENE?

No. Despite protests from Tamil politicians in India, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear he has no plans to stop Rajapaksa's war against a group his country lists as a terrorist organisation. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited on Wednesday, and made no mention of a truce but instead talked about Indian assistance in post-war reconstruction.

DOES MILITARY SUCCESS MEAN EARLY ELECTIONS?

Rajapaksa's popularity is riding high on the war. Signs of early polls abound: the election budget this year has been quadrupled, polls are due in two provinces in February and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) has assumed a campaign stance. Allies say there are plenty of factors that will influence Rajapaksa's decision on timing. He is aware that the UNP's main criticism is the state of the $32 billion (22 billion pounds) economy.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE ECONOMY?

As predicted, both the Colombo Stock Exchange and the sliding rupee currency got a boost from Kilinochchi's capture. Both swiftly went back to moving on their own fundamentals as they have throughout the quarter-century war.

Sri Lanka is suffering from costly short-term foreign debt, low foreign exchange reserves and a high deficit. Key exports like tea and clothing have been hit by the global slowdown and the war is expected to cost nearly $2 billion this year.

IS ANY OF THAT A RISK TO RAJAPAKSA?

Not really. His mainly rural power base has been largely shielded from economic woes through populist budgets and development projects. Rajapaksa is also counting on a flood of post-war reconstruction money to come in after fighting ends.

That could be complicated by three violent attacks on the media this month, which have angered many donor countries -- who have yet to apply the only real leverage they have: money.

The troops are pushing the Tigers into a shrinking territory

Heavy monsoon rains were falling as we approached the outskirts of Mullaitivu in a Sri Lankan armoured personnel carrier.

"We had to fight here for one week or so," said Colonel Arun Aryasinghe, as he showed us a huge earthen defence line constructed by the Tamil Tigers. "It was a very hard battle."

Mullaitivu used to be one of the Tigers' most important bases. Now the Sri Lankan flag flies overhead, and government troops are in complete control.

But they have inherited a ghost town, full of broken buildings. Apart from men in uniform, a stray dog wandering through a burnt-out shop was one of the only signs of life.

When the Tamil Tigers were forced out, they took Mullaitivu's civilian population with them into the surrounding jungles.

Guerrilla tactics

For almost a year, as Sri Lankan troops have advanced from the south, the story has been the same. They have taken territory, boosted by better weapons and weight of numbers.

But the local population has melted away in front of them.

Why has the army suddenly had such striking military success?

It is partly because they have taken on the Tigers at their own game - guerrilla warfare.

The army has changed tactics - and those tactics have been working

They have deployed small teams of fighters deep in the jungle, and sent out highly manoeuvrable boats to take on the Tigers' fledgling navy.

Now the rebels have their backs to the wall, holding a shrinking but still significant piece of land. Estimates of their remaining strength vary, but they are unlikely to go down without a fight.

Some of the fighting is pretty close to Mullaitivu. The sound of shell fire echoes through the empty streets.

Just to the north is the final stretch of Sri Lankan coastline under rebel control. If - and they will say when - government forces reclaim it, the Tigers will be surrounded and cut off from the sea.

'Exaggerated' numbers

International aid agencies say a quarter-of-a-million civilians are already trapped in the war zone, and hundreds of people have been killed and injured. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has spoken of a major humanitarian crisis.

But the man running this war, Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, told me that the numbers were exaggerated.

"It's wrong information," he said, "it is all propaganda. I'm not saying the Red Cross is lying but they are exaggerating."

People who have been into rebel-held territory paint a very different picture, of traumatised civilians moving from place to place with little shelter and no security.

There is little sign of life in the town

A United Nations spokesman told me that UN staff had seen dozens of people killed by shell fire.

But with his troops patrolling the streets of Mullaitivu, and other towns which had previously been under rebel control, Gotabaya Rajapaksa is scenting victory.

The defence secretary categorically ruled out the prospect of any kind of ceasefire for humanitarian reasons.

"No ceasefire," he said. "Why should we?

"Every time there is a ceasefire, the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] use that to their own advantage. That's why this war has been dragging on for 30 years."

And his aim now?

"The mission is... eradicating terrorism and destroying the LTTE completely."

But once again - away from the eyes of the world - it is the civilians of northern Sri Lanka who are suffering.

Sri Lanka has maintained its push against the LTTE in the face of claims that civilians have been killed [AFP Hundreds of people wounded in the crossfire between Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil Tiger fighters have been removed from the war zone on a UN convoy, the world body says. The rescue operation in the north of the country on Thursday came as the Sri Lankan army maintained its assault against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "The convoy just crossed the frontline with hundreds of the civilians wounded by the fighting, including 50 critically wounded children, who are being moved to a ministry of health hospital in Vavuniya," Gordon Weiss, a UN spokesman, said. Government forces have pushed the Tamil Tigers into a 300sq km pocket of territory in Mullaittivu district. But humanitarian relief organisations say that about 250,000 civilians are still trapped in the rebel-held area. UN concerned Speaking from northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera's correspondent, said: "The United Nations agency is Sri Lanka is now seriously concerned for the well-being of civilians in the small and ever-shrinking pocket in the north of the country, which is controlled by the Tamil Tigers." Government forces have the Tigers in a stranglehold, he said. "The army and air force will use its aerial power and reconnaissance ability when they move into thick jungle around Mullaittivu," Birtley said. "At the moment, the government forces are fighting on conventional lines, as we understand. We have seen a number of army casualties. "The army maintains it is inflicting more damage on the LTTE but we only have their word for it." The LTTE has accused the army of shelling a no-fire zone it set up last week for civilians. TamilNet, a pro-LLT website, on Wednesday said 23 civilians were killed and 121 wounded, quoting unidentified medical sources. But the Sri Lankan government insists there have been "zero civilian casualties" in its operations, and that the LTTE has moved its artillery into populated areas. 'Civilian tragedy' Jacques de Maio, the head of Red Cross operations for South Asia, said on Wednesday: "People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded. "It's high time to take decisive action and stop further bloodshed because time is running out." "It is high time to take decisive action and stop further bloodshed because time is running out" Jacques de Maio, the head of Red Cross operations for South Asia The military says the LTTE, which claims to be fighting for the creation of an independent Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka, wants to create a "last-minute civilian tragedy" because the army was about to completely defeat them. Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said claims of civilian deaths are part of a "cheap propaganda exercise" by the LTTE. The government has said civilians are being forced to move with the Tigers to act as human shields, but there has been no independent confirmation that is the case. The Red Cross' De Maio said: "When the dust settles, we may see countless victims and a terrible humanitarian situation unless civilians are protected and international humanitarian law is respected in all circumstances." Village captured On the war front, Sri Lankan forces pushed into the northern village of Visuamadu, held by the LTTE, on Wednesday, a defence ministry official said. He said the Tigers withdrew their long-range artillery guns into an area declared a 35sq km "safe zone" for civilians, and were firing at the military from there. The military seized Mullaittivu on Sunday, which they said was the LTTE's last urban centre. A fresh offensive against the LTTE was launched by the government late last year, shrinking the northern territory under its control. Thousands of people have been killed in Sri Lanka since the LTTE launched its war in 1972.