S Lanka's Jaffna gets aid, rebels release prisoner

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Aug 26 (Reuters) Officials today distributed aid on Sri Lanka's besieged Jaffna peninsula and foreign nationals were being evacuated as two Red Cross vessels docked there after weeks of fighting cut off the region.

The fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces, the first ground battles since a 2002 ceasefire, has displaced more than 200,000 people, cut off half a million people in Jaffna from essential supplies and left towns and villages destroyed and deserted.

A Red Cross-flagged cargo ship that arrived off Jaffna on Thursday night was unloading around 1,500 tonnes of food, the first such shipment since fighting blocked road access more than two weeks ago.

A ferry also bearing the Red Cross flag was due to load the first 150 of an estimated 500 people, mostly aid staff and other foreign nationals, who are to be evacuated from the peninsula to the northeastern port of Trincomalee and from there to the capital.

Jaffna lies on the northern tip of the island republic and is held by the government, but is cut off from the rest of the country by a swathe of rebel territory. During the truce, however, people and goods were allowed to travel across.

The only other supply route into Jaffna is by air but this is now considered dangerous since the Palaly air base is believed to be within range of rebel artillery.

Military aircraft fly in metres above the surface of the sea and only stay on the ground long enough for reinforcements to jump down and for the wounded and the dead to be loaded.

Jaffna, the historical capital of Sri Lankan Tamils, has changed hands several times in two decades of civil war and is seen as a key Tiger goal in their fight for a separate Tamil homeland.

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