http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C02%5C08%5Cstory_8-2-2009_pg20_6
Sunday, February 08, 2009 Tigers infiltrating media, aid organisations: Sri Lanka * Military says rebel leader missing as thousands flee war COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's top defence official has accused international media and aid organisations of siding with the Tamil Tigers, a report said on Saturday, as the military pushed its offensive against the rebels. A day after an angry mob stoned the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Colombo, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said the Tigers were infiltrating relief agencies and news organisations. "There is a well-orchestrated campaign to discredit the government and the security forces and bring pressure on it to declare a ceasefire by LTTE agents who have infiltrated international organisations and media institutions," Rajapakse told the state-run Daily News. Colombo has rejected calls from foreign governments and agencies to halt its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to avoid civilian casualties, saying it is on the verge of victory. Sri Lanka has also resisted calls for a "no fire period" to allow civilians to get out of the conflict zone, while rights groups and foreign governments have accused the Tigers of holding civilians as a human shield. Rajapakse said people allegedly in the pay of the Tigers were "fabricating stories to invent a scenario of a human catastrophe and are disseminating false information". UN agencies have said there are 250,000 civilians trapped by the ongoing fighting in the northeast of the island, but Rajapakse, who is the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, said there were fewer than 100,000. Leader: Meanwhile, the military said on Saturday air force jets killed 11 guerrillas in a strike that left the leader of the Tamil Tigers' naval wing missing. With rebel territory fast shrinking, the hunt is on for Tiger leaders including the elusive Vellupillai Prabhakaran, the man who founded the group that turned the suicide bomb into a weapon of war and landed on numerous international terrorism lists. Fighters bombed a complex of bunkers with an apartment and communications dishes on Friday, killing at least 11 rebels, air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said. Initial reports said it may have been a Prabhakaran hideout, but later was found to be an operational base for the LTTE's "Sea Tigers" naval wing and its chief, Soosai, he said. "Intelligence reports say the whereabouts of Soosai is not known. He is now missing," Nanayakkara said. Later, jets returned and destroyed a backhole digging up the bombed site, and another was called afterwards, according to monitored LTTE communications, he said. "That implies there was a leader. Otherwise they wouldn't dig that place up like that," Nanayakkara said. agencies
