NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Two more men accused of conspiring to provide material support to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebel group on Tuesday pleaded guilty on the eve of their trial in U.S. District Court. Sahilal Sabaratnam, 29, and Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, 40, each pleaded guilty to conspiring to buy equipment, including guided anti-aircraft missiles, for the group, court spokesman Robert Nardoza said. On Monday, just as jury selection was getting underway, two other men charged in the case -- Sathajhan Sarachandran, 29, and Nadarasa Yogarasa, 54 -- also pleaded guilty. Opening arguments had been set to begin on Wednesday. Several others -- including Karunakaran Kandasamy, the suspected head of the U.S. branch of the group -- were charged separately and are expected to go on trial later this year. Kandasamy stands accused of overseeing the organization's activities and fund-raising. The four men were arrested on Long Island, New York, in 2006, after three of them were accused of negotiating with an undercover FBI agent to buy heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles and launchers and hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles. The men were acting under the direction of senior Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka, prosecutors said. The United States designates the Tamil Tigers as a foreign terrorist organization. The rebels, known officially as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, have been fighting for decades for an independent state in the north and east of the Indian Ocean island. On Monday, Sri Lankan army officials suggested the ethnic conflict might be coming to an end, saying they had captured the last big town held by the separatist group and confined the Tamil Tigers to a small wedge of jungle. More than 70,000 people have died and millions have been displaced since the war began in 1983. Prosecutors said the Tamil Tigers rely on expatriates to raise money, get weapons and spread propaganda. To coordinate these activities, the Tigers have established "branches" in at least 12 countries, including an office in the New York borough of Queens, they said. (Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard outside a bullet-riddled building that had once housed the Bank of Ceylon in the formerly Tamil Tiger rebel-controlled town of Mullaitvu in north-eastern Sri Lanka January ...
