Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have been weakened by a series of military operations by government troops against them in the island's battle zones, a renegade Tamil Tiger leader said Saturday.
"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has been hit by military action. All they now do is just defending their forward defense lines," Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna told the BBC Tamil radio Saturday.
Karuna who was accused by the British authorities of arriving in Britain with false travel documents last September was deported to Sri Lanka on Thursday.
"The LTTE cannot anymore do military attacks on their own. But it will take more time for them to be totally eliminated," Karuna said.
He was the LTTE's most powerful eastern commander until he quit the organization in March 2004. He then formed a rival group to the LTTE, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP, means Tamil Peoples Liberation Tigers).
It has since become a democratic political party and an ally ofthe government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The TMVP won the local council elections held in March in the eastern Batticaloa district and its deputy leader Sivanesaturai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan was appointed chief minister of the Eastern Provincial Council after an election held there in May.
Sri Lanka's security forces are currently battling LTTE in the north with the aim of crushing them within one year.
The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people.
Source: Xinhua
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