SL on edge over fear of more rebel violence

Colombo, Oct 19: Sri Lankan troops stepped up a vigil in cities and at key military facilities across the island today amid fears of new attacks by Tamil Tiger rebels as new fighting flared in the north of the country.

News of the fighting came a day after the rebels, fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983, launched an apparent suicide mission on a naval base in the southern city of Galle, killing one sailor and losing 15 guerrillas.

''Heavy fighting between Sri Lankan Navy and Liberation Tigers was reported near the coast of Karainagar in Jaffna islets yesterday night,'' said the pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com, adding that details were not yet available.

Sporadic fighting also broke out overnight in the north of the country with the army and the rebels exchanging mortar and artillery fire in the Jaffna region, scene last week of some of the worst battles between the two sides since a 2002 truce.

One civilian was killed in shelling by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) late yesterday, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Police said they had found a claymore bomb planted below an electricity transformer near a school in Mahara town about 15 km northeast of the capital Colombo and explosive experts were defusing it.

SUICIDE MISSION

The apparent suicide mission in Galle was seen as a new blow to peace talks between the government and the rebels due later this month.

The raid triggered minor looting in Galle, with Sinhala criminal gangs targeting shops belonging to Tamils who are a minority in the southern provinces, leading to a curfew being imposed.

Today, life was back to normal in the tourist town, which was badly hit by the 2004 tsunami, with businesses opening and traffic plying as usual, residents said. However, there were more policemen and navy troops deployed, they added.

Violence has spiralled in Sri Lanka since late July, shattering a truce brokered in 2002 and killing hundreds of people. More than 65,000 people have been killed so far in the nearly quarter-century civil war.

The government and the rebels are due to meet in Geneva on October 28 and 29 for their first peace talks since February but the meeting has been written off even before it begins because of the rising violence and deep mistrust between the two sides.

Yesterday's relatively rare attack in the south of the country -- far from the northern and eastern strongholds of the rebels -- was an attempt to politically weaken President Mahinda Rajapakse in the his southern base, one newspaper editorial said.

''The political fallout of a devastating attack in the south will be the loss of public confidence in the government,'' the Island said today.

''The LTTE seems to be desperate for a spectacular attack on a military installation in time for the Geneva talks to enhance its bargaining power,'' it said.

REUTERS

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