Former female rebel arrested in Sri Lanka

Police in Sri Lanka have arrested a former top female Tamil Tigers leader who headed a naval unit of the rebels, officials said on Tuesday.

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said women's wing leader Murugesu Bairahi was arrested at Colombo's main international airport while she was about to leave the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rohana said the Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) of police had launched a probe over reports that the rebel leader had arrived in the country.

The 41-year-old was arrested by the TID when she was preparing to leave for France.

According to police, Bairahi was heading the women's wing of the Tamil Tigers' Sea Tigers unit from 1997 to 2000, and she had fled to France in 2005.

Investigations revealed that she returned to Sri Lanka last month and was staying in Paranthan in the north of the country, police said.

The police spokesman said the former LTTE member has been detained for three days to be questioned by the TID.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was defeated in May 2009 after 30 years of a civil war in which thousands were killed.