அடி உதவுவது போல் அண்ணன், தம்பி கூட உதவமாட்டார்கள்.

Sri Lanka 'open to talks' despite Tiger assault


Sri Lanka's government said the door was still open for Tamil Tigers to talk peace, a day after the rebels mounted their biggest-ever suicide operation with a ground attack backed by air strikes.

Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said the attack, in which 13 servicemen and around 20 Black Tiger suicide fighters were killed, had not changed the government's desire for a negotiated end to a two-decade civil war in which 70,000 people have died.

However the government has declared it aims to destroy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militarily and evict them from all territory they control in the far north, while the separatist Tigers demand an independent state, leaving the sides deadlocked.

"Yesterday's attack was just another pin-prick. It is not going to change anything on the ground," Mr Kohona said of Monday's pre-dawn attack, in which Black Tigers infiltrated a base in the northern district of Anuradhapura and rebel light aircraft dropped bombs.

"It has very little military significance."

The Tigers claimed to have destroyed eight aircraft parked at the base during the assault, including helicopter gunships and aerial reconnaissance craft, in what analysts said was a body-blow to the military. The government said three aircraft were damaged.

"The situation remains that the government is committed to bringing this conflict to an end through a negotiation process rather than through a military process," Mr Kohona said.

"However it is important that both sides come to the table. The government is ready and willing to be at the table, but the LTTE so far has indicated no intention of coming to the table."

The Defence Ministry on Tuesday posted pictures of the slain suicide fighters sprawled on tarmac at the base, some charred, one with eyes wide-open and one with a gaping hole in his head.

The dead were then stripped, their naked bodies piled into the back of a tractor trailer, and driven along the road in full view of the public.

- Reuters