Sri Lanka's Tamil Rebels to Hire Mercenaries: ReportsSri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tiger rebels who are suffering a severe depletion of its combatants have decided to hire mercenaries to bolster up its forces, reports from the north of the war-torn country have indicated.The leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has also decided to relax regulations to induce its combatants to remain in their units without deserting ranks. Accordingly, the Tiger rebels are now allowed to marry and have children, the official Daily News on Friday quoted the reports as saying. In recent months the LTTE rebels have suffered several reversals at the hands of government forces who have expanded the territory under their control. Following major setbacks last year the government has armed its forces with modern and more powerful equipment which the rebels have not been able to match. The LTTE has extended their unilateral ceasefire by one more month till April 24 and warned that they would break it if the government wound not respond positively. Their ceasefire began on Christmas Eve last year. The government has maintained that a reciprocal ceasefire is possible only after talks between the two sides make substantive progress. The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 for a separate Tamil state in the north and east of the country. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the bloody war. |
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