Death toll 43 amid uneasy calm in Lanka's north

Colombo, Oct 12: The death toll in the six-hour-long fierce battle between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers in the Muhamalai area in northern Jaffna yesterday has mounted to 43, an army spokesperson confirmed this morning.

However, the Tamil Tigers have claimed that they have lost only ten of their cadres.

''According to latest report, 43 soldiers, including a couple of officers, had been killed and 224 more wounded,'' a military official, attached to the Media Centre for National Security, told UNI by phone.

The military, which claimed yesterday that it launched a major defensive ''clearing operation'' to dismantle the heavy LTTE build-up in the Muhamalai, Nagarkovil and Kilali areas, today said, '' The Security Forces have 'repulsed intensive' LTTE offensives on Forward Defence Lines (FDL) of the military at Muhamalai.'' ''Reliable sources indicate that over 200 Tiger terrorists have been killed and large numbers are seriously injured in the offensive,'' the official said, adding the Northern battlefront remains ''relatively calm'' today, other than the intermittent artillery and mortar shelling.

However, LTTE's Peace Secretariat website claimed that it had repulsed the military's ''three-pronged large-scale offensive from Muhamalai and Kilali'' to move into the LTTE-held areas.

''It was only in late afternoon that the Sri Lankan military was eventually repulsed back behind their Forward Defence Lines.

During the clearing operations following the clashes, the LTTE recovered more than 75 bodies of Sri Lankan soldiers,'' the rebel website claimed last night.

Claiming that a wounded Sri Lankan soldier was taken as prisoner of war, the LTTE website said it was making arrangements to hand over the corpses through the ICRC.

The fresh fighting broke out exactly a day after the Tamil Tiger rebels announced that they agreed to resume direct talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa's coalition government on October 28 and 29 in Geneva, but warned the organisation would be forced to reconsider its decision ''if military aggression continued''.

Meanwhile, the United States said it ''is deeply concerned that ongoing violence in Sri Lanka is putting the agreement at risk''.

''We call on both sides to cease hostilities immediately and foster an environment that is conducive to holding productive discussions in Geneva,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has said in a statement.

''We also urge both sides to ensure that non-governmental entities involved in humanitarian relief efforts are provided access to conflict-affected areas. It is imperative that human rights be respected and protected in all areas of Sri Lanka,'' he said.

Top Norwegian facilitator and Norwegian Minister for International Development Eric Solheim urged both, the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to end the ongoing fighting in order to ''ensure that a meeting actually takes place''.

UNI

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