Sri Lanka fighting eases after capture of rebel area

COLOMBO, Sep 5 (Reuters) Sri Lankan troops cleared mines and searched for boobytraps in newly captured Tamil Tiger terrain in the island's northeast today, the military said.

Capturing the rebel-held settlement of Sampur brought a lull in the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire.

The army captured the southern edge of strategic Trincomalee harbour yesterday after days of artillery battles. It was the first major capture of enemy territory by either side since the truce.

''We are conducting search and clear operations in Sampur, clearing landmines from the area,'' said a military spokesman.

''They have withdrawn from the Sampur area. They have not fired any weapons overnight.'' The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been able to shell Trincomalee's major naval base and disrupt a maritime supply route to the besieged army-held Jaffna peninsula to the north from their positions in Sampur.

The latest episode in Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war began with air strikes on rebel territory in late July amid a dispute over a blocked water supply. The fighting then spread to Jaffna. A week ago, the army began an offensive to clear the rebels from Sampur.

The military said 15 troops were killed and more than 90 were injured during the Sampur offensive. It estimates dozens of Tigers were killed.

''Let's hope the military how now ended their offensive, because it could completely collapse the ceasefire agreement,'' said Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission spokesman Thorfinnur Omarsson.

''The Tigers are asking us if the truce is over. We certainly hope it is not.'' BLAME GAME The government and the rebels say they continue to stand by the terms of a 2002 truce, which still technically holds.

But the foes each blame the other for trying to force a full-scale return to a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.

Hundreds of civilians, troops and Tiger fighters have been killed in the past month, and more than 200,000 people have been displaced and are now living in refugee camps across the island's rural northeast.

Analysts fear the Tigers could strike elsewhere, possibly in the capital Colombo, the site of two bombings, assassinations and a string of abductions in recent weeks.

The violence has already hit the island's tourism industry, and many companies have put investments in the 23 billion dollars economy on the backburner until the uncertainty clears.

''On the one hand the LTTE terrorists are engaged in the most cruel terrorism and violence to divide and separate our country. As a result, we are faced with a challenge to the stability of the country's economy,'' President Mahinda Rajapakse told his party's annual convention yesterday, triumphantly announcing Sampur's capture.

''On the other hand, there is the challenge of removing the germs of mistrust that have been spread among the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people ... and build a new Sri Lanka based on mutual trust, love and understanding.'' The Tigers, though, feel little trust.

''This is a severe breach of the ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan military taking LTTE-controlled areas,'' S Puleedevan, head of the rebels' peace secretariat, said by telephone from the Tigers' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi after Sampur's fall.

''They are not honouring the ceasefire agreement. They are forcing it to the brink of collapse,'' he added. ''On our side we are fully committed to it.'' Reuters PB DB0902