Sri Lankan troops were placed on alert yesterday as a renegade Tamil Tiger leader said he was being hunted by death squads and vowed to hit back, as the rival rebel camps purged subordinates whose loyalties were in doubt. Government forces, which have remained neutral in the deepening crisis within the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were on red alert fearing being caught in the crossfire and ordered troops to take maximum precautions. "We are facing a very dangerous situation,"" a military commander in the east of the island said by telephone. "They could target us to drag us into the crisis. We are keen to avoid getting involved and have alerted troops." Rebels close to regional commander V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, said he had received reports that death squads had been sent to get him after he was dismissed on Saturday by Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, 49. Karuna, 37, who is reportedly commanding 6,000 fighters, or about a third of the original LTTE force, was ready to fight back, rebel sources said. They claimed that another regional Tiger commander, in neighbouring Trincomalee, had been placed under "house arrest" by the Tiger hierarchy, fearing he could side with Karuna. Both factions were reportedly rounding up or placing under house arrest those whose loyalties were in doubt, military sources said. Tension gripped Batticaloa, 303km east of here, as thousands of Karuna's supporters took to the streets and burnt effigies of Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief Pottu Amman, residents said. Karuna, the de facto number two in the LTTE, led the unprecedented breakaway after accusing his boss of giving key positions to Tamils from the north, known as Jaffna Tamils, overlooking the Batticaloa Tamils from the east. However, Karuna suffered a setback yesterday when a man he had made his political wing leader last week, Sivagnanam Karikalan, appeared to defect. A Norwegian peace envoy, Erik Solheim, is due to arrive here today on a previously arranged visit to review the truce between the government and the LTTE that has been in place since February 2002, diplomats said. Karuna said he informed the Norwegian ambassador Hans Brattskar about possible fighting between his soldiers and the main insurgent army. Brattskar confirmed receiving the call but declined to give details. Karuna has said his group will respect the existing truce until it can sign a new one. Tigers' political chief S P Thamilselvan has insisted that the peace process - stalled since April - would not be affected. The Tigers yesterday turned up the propaganda war on Karuna, accusing him of being like Cambodian leader Pol Pot who caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people in his country's "Killing Fields". "Karuna will be seen as Pol Pot if he continues to act irresponsibly towards our people," Karikalan said on the pro-Tiger Tamilnet Web site. The renegade groups also pressed their demand for a fresh ceasefire with the government in leaflets distributed yesterday which also warned that failure to do this could trigger fighting, witnesses said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Tamil Tigers march on the road to Thopigila Camp, the main military camp of the break away faction of the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in Eastern Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 4, 2004. (AP Photo/Julia Drapkin)