CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

MILITARY SAID THE THIRD IN COMMAND OF THE SEA TIGERS WAS KILLED WHILE TRIED EVACUATION OF EASTERN TROOPS

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lankan military sources said that two senior cadres identified as Lieutenant Colonels by the Sea Tigers were among the six dead and one of them is supposed to be the third in command of the sea going Tigers in an attack craft sunk according to intercepted radio messages of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

They died in a sea battle off the Nayaru coast when the sea craft with others were attempting to evacuate the fleeing cadres from the jungles North of Trincomalee after the fall of Eastern Province to the Sri Lankan armed forces, the sources said.

“Intercepted Radio transmission among the LTTE cadres has revealed that two self-styled "Lt Colonels" of LTTE identified as Thiyagan alias Chandrasekaran Pillai and Sodilingam Nishanthan alias Kanyanthambi ; one self styled "Captain" named Sewandan Arulsuryan alias Agasur ; and three self styled "Second Lieutenants" named Lylan Anushan alias Sembulwanan, Eswaranthan Waran alias Olinivan, Sasikumar. alias Ahalkadal had been killed in the incident”, a Defense Ministry statement said.

The statement said Thiyagan alias Chandrasekeran Pillai is the third most senior cadre among the Sea Tigers , who are about 4000 strong according to LTTE claims.

Although no other names of lower rankers were described in the radio communications , the type of craft destroyed usually carry 12 and more would have been killed , the military statement speculated.
The Media Center for National Security said at first ground troops have confronted Tigers trying to flee from the east to the north and killed three of them. One soldier was also killed in action,
"Then the navy encountered a cluster of rebel boats which we think had come to ferry the fighters on land to the north, and sank one boat and damaged several others."

Still there are hundreds of LTTE troops hiding in the Eastern Province jungles and attempting to cross over to the LTTE occupied Mulativu area by being picked up by LTTE craft.

The Sri Lanka government has said they will track them in the jungles and destroy. The government said they could surrender to the government from September 1 after which they will be rehabilitated and given a job training.

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