As the Sri Lankan army drives the Tamil Tigers from ever more of the northern territory they once held, a fuller picture is emerging of the rebels. Soldiers have stumbled upon weaponry that speaks of a well-resourced militant group that had systematically armed itself to bomb a government into submission. Hiran Halangode, a retired brigadier, describes them as a well-financed, innovative group: "not the run-of-the-mill sort of organisation with an ammo dump that you could catch any time you wished".rnSince the army started converging on the district of Mullaitivu in January, it has found training facilities for suicide-bombers and other fighters and factories producing chemical bombs. At Dhar-mapuram, soldiers located underwater fuel-storage tanks with 67,500 litres of diesel. Inside thick jungle, hidden from aerial view, they hit upon boatyards and completed submarines. The defence ministry's website later called the Tigers "the first terrorist organisation to develop underwater weapons". Among the other boats were fast-attack craft and some built for naval suicide-missions.
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