A high-level team of the United States Pacific Command (US PACOM) from their headquarters in Hawaii is now in Colombo for this purpose. The exercise, The Sunday Times learns, will involve US military assets, including those of the Air Force and the Navy. The purpose will be purely to facilitate the movement of civilians from the northeastern coast to a ship in the deep seas. This is for transfer to IDP centres or hospitals outside the battle zones.

Tiger guerrillas for the first time tried out a kamikaze-style suicide bomb attack in Colombo by packing the two light aircraft with more than 200 kilograms of explosives each, investigators reported yesterday. Police and the Government Analyst’s Department officials who held forensic investigations on the debris of the two LTTE aircraft discovered that for the first time the Tiger planes had not carried bombs but were packed with explosives.