Sri Lanka rebels break through military defenses

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger
rebels broke through military defenses in the island’s far
north and overran army bunkers on Saturday, truce monitors
said, as the fiercest fighting since a 2002 truce spread.

The Tigers and army exchanged intense artillery fire and
government jets bombed near the rebels’ forward defense lines
in the northern Jaffna peninsula, residents said, as thousands
of civilians fled to churches.

The military said it sank five Sea Tiger boats as the
rebels’ feared sea arm attacked army posts on the shore in
Jaffna, but analysts said they suspected the Tigers were trying
to divert pressure from their fighters battling in the east
rather than trying to capture Jaffna.

“Ten bunkers of the Sri Lankan Army were taken but five of
them were retaken by the security forces,” said Robban Nilsson
of the unarmed Nordic truce monitoring mission. “They are still
500 meters (yards) inside the (army) forward defense lines.”

“It’s an extremely serious situation,” he added, saying
Tiger fighters had landed on an island west of Jaffna and had
engaged the navy.

The military said it still controlled the whole peninsula
and had killed 100 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
rebels, but said a few might have got through. Around 40,000
troops are stationed in Jaffna, which is cut off from the rest
of the island by rebel territory.

As civilians from coastal villages sought refuge,
expatriates headed to a UN compound after being warned to leave
immediately.

ARTILLERY FIRE

In the east of the island, the Tigers rained artillery on
the strategic port of Trincomalee, a vital maritime army supply
line to Jaffna, before dawn. The military said there was some
damage, but gave no details.

A Reuters witness in Jaffna, where the army has declared an
indefinite curfew to keep people in their homes, heard a fierce
exchange of artillery fire to the east. Electricity was cut off
for hours.

Sri Lanka’s Tamils consider Jaffna their cultural homeland,
and analysts say the Tigers are intent on recapturing it.

Some distraught residents dread being displaced yet again.

“We cannot go on like this forever,” said Richard, a
retired Tamil merchant seaman, who declined to give his family
name. “I incurred heavy financial losses when I was displaced
in 1995, and it took me some time to rebuild my house.”

“It is better to hand over Jaffna to the LTTE. Only then
will this stop. Until then, this war will go on.”

FIGHT OVER WATER

The military accused the Tigers of provoking the northern
confrontation and the government has said it will not halt
operations until it controls a disputed waterway in the east
and an irrigation reservoir that feeds it. This was the issue
which sparked the fighting 18 days ago.

The Tigers insist the land is theirs and say continued army
attacks are effectively a declaration of war. Monitors said
nearly 300 majority Sinhalese civilians in government areas had
been given assault rifles near the sluice area.

“The problem is the government basically started this. I
think we are inclined to sit back and let them take it on the
chin for a while,” said one diplomat from a G7 country.

North of the town of Batticaloa toward a sluice gate on the
waterway, the Red Cross say thousands of Tamils are displaced
behind rebel lines having spent days under shellfire. Around
50,000 people are in camps in government territory.

The Tigers have long demanded a separate homeland for
ethnic Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka but President
Mahinda Rajapakse has ruled this out. The rebels say any return
to stalled peace talks is a distant prospect.

(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner in COLOMBO and Peter
Apps in BATTICALOA)