Breakaway faction of Tamils ‘falling apart’

THE renegade rebel army of a commander who defected from the Tamil Tiger separatists and placed Sri Lanka’s cease-fire in jeopardy was falling apart yesterday, following their retreat from battle with the mainstream guerrillas, military sources said.

The northern-based Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam were so certain of victory from their weekend advance against the renegade Eastern Tigers that they scheduled a meeting with the European ceasefire monitors, said Hagrup Haukland, deputy chief of the monitors.

Military sources in Colombo said they were unsure whether renegade leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralithanran also known as Karuna had fled the area or remained holed up at his base in Thoppigala, 75 miles north of Colombo.