Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels launch air strikes against government installations, boosting their morale after last year's losses and taking the renewed conflict to a dangerous new level.

In an apparent change of war tactics, Sri Lanka's Tamil militant group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is now resorting to aerial attacks against government targets, a novel shift in the conflict that has ravaged the Indian Ocean island nation for three decades.

After 25 years, for the first time, election was held to the demerged Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on September 21. Though the victory of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) with a thumping two-third majority was predicted, some thought the development route to ethnic reconciliation as relentlessly articulated and pursued by the Rajapakse government, would give it some electoral benefits. It managed to win only 7 seats (18.38 per cent of the votes) in the 38-member council.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been involved in the armed struggle with the Sri Lankan government since 1983, has now lost many of its senior cadres and strategic hideouts to the Sri Lankan military. For the first time, questions have been raised internationally on the future of Eelam movement under the Rajapakse's military doctrine. Despite the Sri Lankan military success, the LTTE could still stunningly make its presence felt by its active sympathisers worldwide and probably resorting to more suicide strikes at the same time.

After assuming office late last year, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, the Indian Navy chief made his maiden visit to UAE. At Abu Dhabi, he described West Asia as part of India's ‘strategic neighborhood’ and highlighted the importance of a regional security forum comprising of Persian Gulf littoral states modeled on the lines of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) where India has an observer status. The Admiral also called for greater bilateral naval engagements between Indian and UAE maritime forces.

The fragile truce, effective from February 23, 2002, between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE was finally shattered after the Tamil Tiger rebels blew up a Sri Lankan navy Dvora class gunboat outside Trincomalee harbour on January 5, 2006. The suicide attack was the work of an LTTE owned explosives-packed fishing boat that rammed into the naval vessel resulting in 13 sailors missing and presumed dead. Earlier, three sailors aboard a smaller naval patrol craft were killed more than two weeks ago in a sea battle with rebels off the northwestern town of Mannar.

“We have gone 75 per cent of the way... the Tigers are not willing to come the other 25 per cent and We are still hoping to persuade them to come … All I can say is that there is movement forward.” In an exclusive interview with this author, Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumartunga has showed optimism for a lasting peace in dotted lines when her party came to power in April this year. Almost five months have passed since, but the proverbial ‘lasting peace’ remains elusive.