Tigers attack in Sri Lanka north, US envoy visits

COLOMBO, Aug 17: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels launched a new attack overnight on the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula, the army said today, as a US envoy visited the island to hold talks on the worst fighting since a 2002 truce.

The military said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had launched an offensive along the front line with assault boats and infantry, but said it had largely been repulsed. It said 106 soldiers had been killed in the Jaffna battle in the past week.

''Sea Tiger boats fired at the security forces,'' said an army spokesman. ''The security forces retaliated with air strikes. On the ground, the confrontation is still going on.'' Pro-rebel Web site Tamilnet, which diplomats say invariably exaggerates Tiger successes just as the military plays them down, said the Jaffna government military airbase at Palali was hit with Tiger artillery as they attack supply routes.

Telephone contact with the area is largely impossible, and international truce monitors have no access to the area because of the violence. It is not possible to verify claims by either side.

Birthplace of many of the senior rebel leadership and central to their fight for an ethnic Tamil homeland, Jaffna is cut off from the rest of the island by Tiger territory and troops are supplied by sea and air.

''The LTTE's objective does not seem to be to capture Jaffna,'' said Janes' Defence Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas. ''They don't have the conventional forces. Their objective is to besiege Jaffna and grind down the military.'' Aid workers also reported much heavier than usual artillery fire overnight around the northeastern port of Trincomalee, which is just to the north of the area where ground fighting initially broke out over a disputed water supply earlier this month.

SECOND THOUGHTS?

Unarmed Nordic ceasefire monitors said they were moving their staff out of Trincomalee after the shell-fire came too close. Two-thirds of the 60-person mission will leave at the end of the month after the Tigers demanded members from European Union nations to return home following an EU ban on the LTTE.

United States Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Mann was due to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse to discuss the worsening violence -- but with international attention weak, few expect any sudden change.

The rising violence -- which included a suspected Tiger blast in the capital on Monday that killed seven -- is worrying investors and is scaring away tourists. South Africa's cricket team is pulling out of matches in Colombo over security worries.

''We had some second-thoughts when we saw on TV that the South African cricket team was leaving,'' said Australian visitor Leah, staying in the same hotel as the team but still hoping to continue her holiday.

Even giant neighbour India is seen keen to avoid entanglement.

Diplomats had largely blamed the Tigers for new violence until ground fighting began but many now also say the government has been too heavy handed and reluctant to back down.

Truce monitors say the government is obstructing a probe into the executions of 17 mainly Tamil aid workers. Aid workers are finding it hard to reach reported bodies of Muslim civilians allegedly massacred by the Tigers -- a charge the rebels deny.

Confusion still surrounds an air strike on Monday of what the rebels said was an orphanage packed with schoogirls studying first aid and which the government say was a Tiger base. Truce monitors saw 19 bodies, the Tigers say more than 60 died.

Shelling by both sides has displaced tens of thousands and killed dozens of civilians at least. Aid workers say they are unable to reach more than 30,000 people displaced under shell-fire in rebel territory south of Trincomalee.

REUTERS