Sri Lanka claims biggest post-war Tiger ammo find

COLOMBO, May 10, 2014 (AFP) - Sri Lanka's military said Saturday it had unearthed the biggest cache of pistol ammunition buried in the former war zone amid government claims that Tiger rebels are trying regroup.

Naval troops found the buried ammunition Friday in the coastal area of Mullaittivu where the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership was wiped out in a final offensive in May 2009, the navy said in a statement.

"This is the largest stock of LTTE pistol ammunition ever to be recovered by the security forces," navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya told AFP.

"We think this ammunition was buried over five years ago.

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Troops found 120,000 rounds of pistol rounds along with 8,000 rounds of other ammunition.

The navy also released photographs of the ammunition from what it said was the same area where the final civil war battles were fought five years ago.

The navy said the discovery was made on "information received" by them, but gave no details.

The find comes amid government claims that remnants of the LTTE are trying to regroup and stage a comeback five years after their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed by security forces, ending nearly four decades of ethnic