Sri Lanka gunbattles kill 6 in north

Colombo, Sep 10: Sri Lankan soldiers killed six Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the island, the military said today, in the latest clashes in a renewed civil war.

The fighting, in the northern districts of Jaffna and Vavuniya, was the latest in a spate of land and sea battles, ambushes and air raids between the armed forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

The overnight violence follows a new offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military to drive the Tamil Tigers rebels from the northwest Mannar area, after evicting them from jungles in the east of the island.

''The military killed four terrorists who tried to attack Forward Defence Line in Jaffna yesterday, we have retaliated,'' said a spokesman for the Media Centre for National Security, adding that government forces suffered no casualties.

Soldiers killed another two rebels who were trying to attack a defence line in Vavuniya, in the north, he said.

The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

An estimated 5,000 people have died since last year in renewed fighting after a peace process collapsed.

In the civil war that erupted in 1983 about 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Reuters
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