US nets suspected arms procurers for LTTE

US officials said overnight more than a dozen people were arrested on suspicion of trying to provide money and surface-to-air missiles to the Tigers, amid a probe across more than 10 countries.

Sporadic violence continued in Sri Lanka's north and east before dawn on Tuesday during the fourth week of the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire, which monitors say is now dead in all but name.

Nordic truce monitors said on Monday they were temporarily withdrawing to Colombo to regroup ahead of a Sept. 1 ultimatum the Tigers have given their European Union members to quit the island, which leaves them with too few staff to do their job properly.

Analysts say the Tigers -- who have been banned as a terrorist organisation by countries including the United States, India, Britain and the European Union -- have used the past four years of ceasefire to regroup and rearm, and have smuggled a lethal arsenal into the country.

Several people who had agreed to pay more than $900,000 for hundreds of AK-47 rifles and 50 to 100 Russian-made surface-to-air missiles to shoot down Israeli made jets like those used by the Sri Lankan Air Force were nabbed in a New York Sting operation, according to US court documents.

"These defendants allegedly sought to obtain, through a variety of means, weapons and materials to carry out a deadly campaign of violence," US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in statement.