Sri Lanka army battles rebels in major offensive

Colombo, Aug 29: Sri Lankan troops today battled Tamil Tiger rebels in a new offensive, jeopardising the evacuation of foreign nationals from the besieged north in a move diplomats feared could further escalate the confict.

The government says the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) must vacate their positions around Sampur on the southern edge of Trincomalee harbour, from where they have launched attacks on military shipping and shelled the naval base.

''It's a major operation,'' a military source in the capital Colombo told Reuters on condition of anonymity. ''We want to capture Sampur.'' August has been by far the most violent month since a 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of civil war. Hundreds of fighters and civilians have been killed and more than 200,000 people have fled their homes. War seems to have resumed in all but name.

''There is a big offensive going on from the Sri Lankan armed forces,'' said S Puleedevan, the head of the Tiger peace ecretariat.

''They are tying to break through our forward defence lines.'' Trincomalee is the strategic port used by the military to resupply the northern Jaffna peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the island by the rebels and is now under siege.

It was also the port used by the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate about 160 foreign nationals from Jaffna last weekend.

The ICRC wants to send a ship to pick up the several hundred foreign nationals, mainly ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils trapped while visiting families. The Tigers said the rescue mission looked very unlikely while the army continued its offensive.

''We are discussing with the ICRC but the Sri Lankan Army offensive is jeopardising this,'' said Puleedevan. ''We are firing mortars and artillery at the harbour so it is not safe.''

Some diplomats say they believe the current army operation south of Trincomalee is limited in scope and that ultimately the army lacks the capacity to take Sampur. But truce monitors are worried any new push could further escalate the conflict.

''It looks as though they are going for Sampur, which could have serious consequences,'' said Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) spokesman Thorfinnur Omarsson.

That could mean new flare-ups along other parts of the front line in the north and east, or more attacks in the majority Sinhalese south and commercial heartland around Colombo, tying down troops and shattering investor and tourist confidence.

The army said 13 soldiers had been killed and about 70 wounded in the first two days of the battle. At least 66 rebel fighters had also been killed, the army said.

The Tigers say 20 civilians are dead, along with 10 Tigers and 50 soldiers.

Independent verification of the claims is impossible.

''They are attacking our positions and we are simply retaliating,'' said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.

The government says the rebels' artillery must be neutralised to allow tens of thousands of residents to go home.

But after a month of fighting, front lines are almost exactly where they were and the unarmed Nordic truce monitors say nothing has been achieved except massive human suffering.

''The Tigers are not just going to give up Sampur,'' said a Western diplomat. ''There are going to be landmines, defensive positions and the avenues of approach are already going to be dialled in to their artillery.''

REUTERS

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