- Title: SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan army battle Tamil Tigers after rebels attack military camps
- Date: 2nd August 2006
- Summary: WIFE OF DEAD SOLDIER CRYING
- Embargoed: 17th August 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Sri Lanka
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVA1EIYH1B75YYUS0YYPP0YEPBI6
- Story Text: Sri Lankan officials said on Tuesday (August 2) that the army had sustained an unspecified number of casualties in fighting around the strategic eastern port of Trincomalee, which has become a battleground between the Tigers and the government over a water sluice in the district.
Thirteen Sri Lankan soldiers were killed when the rebels blew up a bus with a claymore mine on Tuesday (August 1) . The soldiers were on their way to join the battle to take control of a waterway.
Civilians in the town of Mutur, where the military and rebels both control areas, said they had counted the bodies of five slain female Tiger fighters on the road. They said the Tigers had also taken control of a police checkpoint and that the local Sri Lanka Telecom building office was alight.
The Liberation of Tigers Tamil Eelam (LTTE) dropped mortars near a civilian hospital in nearby Mutur on Tuesday (August 1), but there were no immediate details on any causalities
The Tigers had no immediate comment on the fighting. Diplomats and analysts increasingly fear a return to a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983. Nordic truce monitors say a 2002 ceasefire has broken down in all but name and that the foes are locked in a low intensity war.
More than 800 people have died in a series of attacks and military clashes since the start of this year.
The government accuses the Tigers of attempted ethnic cleansing through cutting off the water supply to around 50,000 mostly Sinhalese and Muslims in army-held territory.
"We would describe it as purely preventive action designed to stop the LTTE from denying water on a permanent basis to this population.There are over 50,000 people who are dependent on this water not only for agriculture but for drinking purposes as well.We need to stop these people from becoming refugees" said Dr. Palitha Kohona, head of the government's peace secretariat.
On Monday (July 31), a senior rebel in the east said an army offensive meant the ceasefire was over and that the war had started. But the government says it remains committed to the ceasefire and the Tigers say they are only acting defensively.
"I don't think this could be described in anyway as the restarting of the war.This morning even the tigers said categorically that the ceasefire agreement still holds. The government remains committed to the ceasefire agreement, and if not for this provocation there would be no cause for the government to engage its forces in this manner" Kohone said
Four sailors and several Tigers were killed when the rebels fired artillery and mortars at Trincomalee harbour on Tuesday as gunboats attacked the transporter ship. The navy said three small Sea Tiger craft were sunk and three others were damaged.
Air force jets have bombed rebel positions in the east for seven straight days. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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