Fierce artillery duels between SL army, rebels

Colombo, Aug 14: The Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka's army fought fierce artillery duels in the island's far north early today, as rebels mingled with civilians in army-held territory despite a call to surrender, the military said.

The government accused the Tigers of shelling civilian areas in the northern Jaffna peninsula, saying it feared fatalities as the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire raged on and raised fears in the capital of a return to full-blown civil war.

Phone lines to the peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel territory and guarded by 40,000 troops, are down, and road and air supply lines are cut off.

However all was calm in the island's east, where fighting first erupted over a rebel waterway blockade three weeks ago ''They have mingled with civilians and are calling artillery fire onto the areas of the security forces,'' said Maj. Upali Rajapakse of the National Security Centre. ''It is falling in and around civilian areas. There has to be civilian dead.'' Pro-rebel website www.tamilnet.com reported 15 civilians were killed when army rockets and shells hit a church where displaced people were taking shelter, but there was no independent confirmation. Residents say thousands of people have fled their homes and are living in churches.

Artillery rained down on Kayts island, just to the west of Jaffna town, and was being fired across a no-man's land that separates government from rebel territory around 32 km to the east.

REBELS DENY PEACE OFFER

Rajapakse said civilian and military flights to Jaffna had been stopped because the Tigers have the capability to hit fixed wing aircraft, though army helicopters were still flying injured troops back to Colombo.

The government briefly raised hopes yesterday that the fighting could soon come to an end, saying it had accepted a rebel offer to resume peace talks.

But the Tigers denied making an offer and said they would continue with their offensive.

''Government offensive attacks make peace talks impossible.'' S Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters by telephone from the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi yesterday.

''(Our) offensive attacks are the best form of defence,'' he said, refusing to comment when asked if the Tigers were trying to capture Jaffna.

Sri Lanka's minority Tamils consider Jaffna their cultural homeland, shadowy rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and several top Tigers hail from there, and analysts say the Tigers are bent on eventually recapturing it.

The Tigers are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demands for a separate ethnic homeland for Tamils in the north and east. Analysts say a two-decade war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983 has already resumed in all but name and will likely deepen.

REUTERS

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