Sri Lanka foils 'suicide mission' to Colombo

Months after its troops defeated the LTTE in the northern beaches, Sri Lanka today foiled an attempted "suicide mission" by suspected Tigers, seizing a van laden with claymore mines meant to be driven to Colombo after detaining two persons.

Acting on information from the detained LTTE suspects, the army detected 20 claymore mines -- each weighing five kg -- fitted inside a van in northwestern Mannar, police said.

The van laden with explosives was to be sent to Colombo for a "suicide bomb attack", a police official said adding the vehicle was seized in the Uppukulam area in Mannar.

The army started looking for the van after questioning the LTTE suspects held from Mt Lavnia near here.
    
Powerful Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said the "war" against LTTE will continue till its "national and international operations are completely defeated".

He said as per the information received by the security forces, the LTTE had about 30,000 trained cadres before the "decisive phase" of the war in May.

Detained LTTE leader K Pathmanathan, the successor of slain Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhkaran, was shedding light on the remaining infrastructure on the rebels, he said. Pathamanathan, detained last week, was being interrogated by Lankan officials at an undisclosed location.

"We now have Pathmanathan with us. We were then able to understand their (LTTE) plans and got to know the information on their local and international organisations."