Sri Lanka fighting subsides, slain aid workers reached

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 7 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's army said fighting had subsided in the island's east today, as French aid workers reached a town in the area where 15 local staff have been found executed.

The military said they exchanged mortar fire with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels near a disputed sluice gate early today, but said they were facing no resistance by mid-afternoon as troops cleared landmines in the area.

''We are totally taking control of this entire area. The LTTE have vacated it seems, because there is no resitance or firing towards our side,'' said a military spokesman.

''The situation is calm and quiet at the moment.'' The Tigers, who halted their offensive and pulled back to pre-ceasefire positions and offered yesterday to open the sluice shortly before the military resumed artillery fire, said earlier they would hit back if attacks resumed.

Fighting between the two sides, the first ground battle since a 2002 ceasefire, erupted late last month after the Tigers blocked the supply of water to farmers in government-controlled territory.

Officials said a team from French NGO Action Contre La Faim had reached the town of Mutur, the centre of the conflict and where 15 local aid workers were found executed yesterday.

The NGO was helping in rebuilding efforts after Mutur, just south of the port city of Trincomalee, was hit by the devastating 2004 tsunami.

''We had a team, which on hearing their staff had been attacked, visited their office in Mutur,'' said Jeevan Thiagarajah, Executive Director of aid group umbrella body the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies (CHA).

''We found their office trashed and found 15 individuals, 11 male, four female, who were wearing their T-shirts, lying face down dead in their compound,'' he added. ''Every one of them, unfortunately, is wearing their Action Contre La Faim T-shirts.'' A pro-rebel Web site blamed government forces for the killings of the aid workers in Mutur, scene of days of fighting that forced most of the population to flee. The military accused the Tigers, and aid workers said it was unclear who was to blame.

Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer left the rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi early on Monday after an abortive peace bid and visited violence-hit areas around Trincomalee.

''It's absolutely necessary to de-escalate the violence because it is now causing a major humanitarian crisis in the east,'' he said, overlooking Trincomalee harbour. ''The problem is this fighting can easily go out of control. I am distressed and very concerned by the situation.'' Well over 800 people had been killed so far this year even before the recent fighting in which the military say they killed over 150 rebels and in which dozens of civilians are said to be dead.

The Tigers said another 15 civilians were also killed in government shelling of rebel areas in the northeast yesterday.

In a separate incident early today, suspected Tiger rebels ambushed and killed a top police commando with a claymore mine in the ancient central hill capital of Kandy, bomb squad officers said.

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