Tigers extend truce as heavy fighting grips Sri Lanka
Tigers extend truce as heavy fighting grips Sri Lanka
COLOMBO (AFP): Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers extended their unilateral truce by one month as heavy fighting raged on Tuesday in Jaffna with troops trying to retake lost territory, officials said.
The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they have decided to extend the ceasefire which was due to expire at midnight Wednesday to pave the way for Norway's efforts to broker peace in the island.
The LTTE in its two-page statement said they were urging the United States, Britain, European nations and India to persuade the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate the truce.
The statement issued from the LTTE's "international secretariat" in London came as fighting raged in the northern peninsula of Jaffna where security forces launched a fresh offensive under the cover of darkness on Monday.
The Tigers initially declared a one-month truce on Christmas eve, but the Sri Lankan government rejected the rebel call to reciprocate saying the militants were trying to buy time.
The government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga said it will agree to de-escalate the conflict only after the rebels enter peace talks through Norwegian facilitation.
The LTTE said it felt that the Colombo government's refusal to reciprocate was to "justify its pursuit to have the LTTE proscribed under the British terrorism Act."
The Tigers maintained they strictly observed the truce and engaged only in "defensive war" in the past month despite government allegations of over 50 truce violations.
Their decision was taken in "compliance with the wish of the international community," it said.
In the latest fighting, the defense ministry said troops shot dead at least 20 members of the LTTE who resisted the military advance mounted on Monday night.
Defense ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said troops lost two soldiers killed and six wounded when Tiger guerrillas fired a barrage of artillery and mortar bombs towards military positions on Tuesday.
There was no reaction from the LTTE to the latest military offensive nor did the LTTE give casualty figures for either side.
Following the Monday night drive, security forces recaptured an area of eight square kilometers lost to the LTTE in November last year, the defense ministry said in a statement issued on Monday night.
"The surprise achieved was such that the terrorists could not use their heavy concentration of mortars and artillery as they were unaware of security forces' positions until consolidation had progressed to a great extent (on Monday night)," it said.
Security forces also took a 2.5 kilometer stretch of the A-9 highway in the area and now control the strategically important high ground in the area, the ministry said.
However, by Tuesday morning heavy fighting erupted with the LTTE mounting a ferocious counter offensive. The military too hit back using air craft and artillery guns as well as multi-barrel rocket launchers, officials said.
The military mounted an offensive that was ferociously repulsed by the LTTE last week in the Jaffna peninsula with the military losing 54 soldiers and the guerrillas losing 52, according to the government.
The LTTE had said the army was aiming to retake the Elephant pass base at the entrance to the Jaffna peninsula. The military lost Elephant Pass to the LTTE in April last year.
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake has vowed that troops will regain Elephant Pass which is still some 20 kilometers away from the latest army positions.