S.Lanka pro-rebel MP shot dead at Christmas service
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-25 10:06

That incident in turn came after two claymore attacks earlier this month killed 14 soldiers in Jaffna, which is hemmed in by rebel lines and which the Tigers want to control.

The Tigers threatened in November to resume their armed struggle to carve out a homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east unless given wide political powers in about 15 percent of the country where they run a de facto state.

New Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is allied to hardline Buddhists who refuse any concessions for the rebels, has already ruled out a Tamil homeland and his government called on Friday on the international community to take measures to rein in the Tigers.