Heavy fighting erupts again in north Sri Lanka

Heavy fighting erupts again in north Sri Lanka

COLOMBO (Agencies): Heavy fighting broke out between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's north when the military advanced ahead of a key town that it captured last week, military officials said on Wednesday.

Twenty rebels were killed in sporadic fighting with government troops in northern Sri Lanka where at least 1,200 people died last week in the biggest battle in two years, the officials said.

Soldiers on patrol north of the town of Mankulam clashed with a group of guerrillas on Tuesday and killed 18 of them without suffering any losses, said Maj. Kumar Dewage, a military spokesman.

Two other guerrillas were killed on Tuesday in separate fighting in the nearby Trincomalee district, said Maj. Dewage. The rebels did not immediately comment on the incidents.

The military captured Mankulam on Sept. 29, two days after rebels took the nearby town of Kilinochchi. The week-long savage fighting killed 1,200 combatants on all sides.

Kilinochchi, 275 kilometers north of the capital, Colombo, and Mankulam, which is 30 kilometers south of Kilinochchi, are along a strategic highway that links the isolated military controlled northern town of Jaffna, with the government held South of the Indian Ocean island. The military has wrested two-thirds of it from the rebels since starting the highway offensive in May 1997.

The rebels are fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the country's north and east, claiming that they are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese who control the government and the military.

Analysts say the capture of Mankulam is not as important as the loss of Kilinochchi, which has brought the rebels closer to an earlier stronghold that they lost to the military in 1996.

The highway, if captured, would give the government land access to the peninsula. Currently all supplies of men and material for Jaffna have to be transported by sea or air.

The government slapped censorship on war reporting by the local and foreign media in June and independent confirmation of events is not possible as journalists are not allowed access to the war zone, except when taken on a tour.

The government says thousands of people have died in the 15- year-old war.