Tiger chief honours suicide bombers

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger chief has paid tribute to 10 suicide bombers who killed at least 15 people in an attack on a northern military base, a pro-rebel website said yesterday.
The elusive Velupillai Prabhakaran, 53, garlanded photographs of the "Black Tiger" suicide bombers at an undisclosed location in the northern Wanni region on Thursday, Tamilnet.com website reported.
Five women were among the group that struck the Vavuniya military complex, 260km north of Colombo on Tuesday, the rebels said.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also used light aircraft to drop bombs on the base. The rebels are believed to operate five Czech-built Zlin-143 aircraft smuggled into the island in pieces and re-assembled.
The Sri Lankan government said it had shot down a Tamil Tiger aircraft, a charge the rebels denied.