Tamil Tigers given surrender warning

SRI LANKA yesterday gave the Tamil Tigers 24 hours to surrender or die after troops breached a huge earthen defence and unleashed an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians held there by the rebels, the military said.

Sri Lanka’s quarter-century separatist war has come down to a tiny strip of coastline, where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are making a last stand while urging a ceasefire to protect civilians they have refused to free.

With so many civilians now outside the 17sq km no-fire zone that is the only battlefield left, Sri Lanka warned LTTE founder Vellupillai Prabhakaran to surrender or face a last military showdown.