The diesel storage complex was discovered yesterday in Mullaitivu district, the army said. The oil, contained in 300 plastic barrels, each holding 225 liters (59 gallons) of fuel, was buried in a coconut grove and protected by “booby-traps and explosives,” the Defense Ministry said.

The LTTE said a Sea Tiger unit attacked a convoy of navy vessels off Mullaitivu yesterday, sinking one boat, the TamilNet news agency based in the north reported. The military said the rebels were trying to escape and lost four vessels in the battle.

The Tamil Tigers have been driven from their bases in the north and east in the past 18 months, suffering the worst defeats in their 26-year fight for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka. The army says it is attacking the LTTE’s last main base at Mullaitivu after capturing the group’s political headquarters at Kilinochchi earlier this month.

Navy fast attack craft “intercepted a flotilla of LTTE Sea Tiger boats launched from Mullaitivu which were trying to get away,” the Defense Ministry said on its Web site early today. More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Jan 19 20:29:33 EST 2009

To his followers, Velupillai Prabhakaran is seen as a "Sun God" who formed a formidable and feared guerrilla organisation out of a ragtag group of separatist rebels in the 1970s.

But to his enemies, he is considered a ruthless killer, outlawed around the world as a terrorist kingpin and wanted on charges of mass murder.

At the height of his military success, Prabhakaran's Tigers inflicted heavy losses on the government forces of Sri Lanka and neighbouring India.

But since Sri Lankan forces mounted their biggest ground, sea and air campaign so far to dismantle the de facto Tiger state in the north of the island, Prabhakaran has seen his territory crumble rapidly. More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Jan 19 06:30:31 EST 2009