Two bombings hit Sri Lankan capital

The LTTE celebrates Nov. 27 as Heroes' Day. In a bid to stop the broadcast of an annual speech by Prabhakaran, Sri Lanka's Air Force bombed an LTTE radio station in the northern city of Kilinochchi, reports Al Jazeera. The rebels said nine people died in the raid. In a bellicose speech, Prabhakaran warned the government not to underestimate its enemy.

"The Sinhala nation is trying to destroy the Tamil nation," the LTTE chief said in the speech, a text of which was distributed by the Tigers.

"It is unleashing unthinkable violence against another people. It only desires to find a solution to the Tamil question through military might and oppression."

Prabhakaran also criticized the international community for paying "lip service to peace" and failing to restrain the "warmongering" Colombo government, reports the Press Trust of India. He made the comments while paying tribute to Mr. Thamilselvan, the LTTE's slain political leader.

"Had the international community firmly and unambiguously condemned the anti-peace activities and the war mongering of the Sinhala regime, Thamilselvan would have been alive today… By only paying lip service to peace, the international community has contributed to the killing of an extra-ordinary son of our nation, Thamilselvan," Prabhakaran said.

The LTTE has fought since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland in northern Sri Lanka, in a war that has killed around 70,000 people. Tamils make up 11.9 percent of the island's 20 million people, and almost 74 percent are Sinhalese, reports Bloomberg.

In July, Sri Lanka's Army flushed the LTTE out of the island's multiethnic east. Earlier this month, President Mahinda Rajapakse vowed in parliament to "eradicate" terrorism from the country and said that the LTTE had "demonstrated that they will never be ready to surrender arms and agree to a democratic political settlement."

Unsurprisingly, the renewed conflict has driven away foreign tourists, reports Agence France-Presse. Arrivals fell 20 percent in the first 10 months of the year to 387,790. Tourism is the island fourth-biggest industry.

In an analysis last month in Asia Times Online, security consultant James Voortman said that having taken back the eastern region Sri Lanka now has the upper hand over the LTTE. But the cost of a military victory, if attainable, could be prohibitive.

Defense analysts are divided on whether or not the military can drive the Tigers from their northern stronghold. The proponents of an assault argue that the Tigers are currently weak. There is an element of truth in this, as is seen with the loss of the east and subsequent battles on the northern fringes…However, other defense analysts see this lack of activity as exactly what makes the Tigers even more dangerous. This theory claims that the rebel leadership has dedicated all of its manpower to defending the north. With the Tigers stronghold being heavily fortified, it will not fall easily, and the military is likely to suffer high casualties.

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