Artillery, fear and defiance on Sri Lankan front

TRINCOMALEE DISTRICT, Sri Lanka, Aug 2 (Reuters) Sri Lankan artillery and multi-barreled rocket launchers shake the ground, smoke rises from the horizon, villagers flee and prepare for attack while ambulances evacuate casualties across paddy fields.

With both Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces involved in offensives in northeast Sri Lanka, villagers, many residents and soldiers say that war has returned -- and they fear what it will bring.

''This village is caught in the middle,'' said 42-year-old farmer H N Gunasinghe in a village south of fighting around the town of Mutur and only a mile from government artillery positions.

''We are scared. All the schools are closed. We daren't go and get water. We can't earn money.'' Behind him, a woman in a torn and dirty dress carried an aged rifle while troops patrolled, guarding concealed 120 mm howitzer and rocket launchers behind a tree-line. A few families passed on the road, heading out of the conflict with their belongings on trucks.

The residents asked that their village was not named for fear of Tiger retaliation.

The most recent spike in violence came after the government accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of cutting off water to 50,000 mainly Sinhalese and Muslim families.

The village was not affected, but most of the majority Sinhalese population say that the government was right to take military action.

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