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.