Sri Lanka rebels halt eastern offensive - Tiger source

COLOMBO, Aug 5 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said they had halted an offensive on a government-held town in the east today and were pulling back -- which the military said would bring a ceasefire if true.

The pull-back comes after days of shelling and mortar bomb and artillery duels around the eastern town of Mutur, which was infiltrated by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

''The offensive operation in Mutur has stopped and the LTTE is going back to its former positions in our own territory,'' a Tiger source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. ''There is no ceasefire yet.'' ''It was a limited operation, and we are doing this on humanitarian grounds,'' the source added, saying the Tigers want thousands of Muslims who fled on Friday to return home.

The military said they would reciprocate the gesture if the Tigers kept their word, but said the army continued to fire artillery at Tiger positions and that the rebels were firing mortars.

''If the pull out is true, we will reciprocate very positively,'' said Maj. Upali Rajapakse, senior coordinator at the Media Centre for National Security. ''If that is the move of the Tigers, all the guns would become silent. That would be a ceasefire.'' He said however the military would continue, irrespective, to clear newly laid landmines from around a sluice gate the government accuses the rebels of blocking to choke the flow of water to majority Sinhalese farmers which sparked the fighting in the first place.

The fighting has been the most intense and prolonged since a 2002 ceasefire. Diplomats and analysts say the truce holds only on paper and that a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983 has resumed.

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