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Bloody end to ceasefire
06/01/2008 13:47 - (SA)
Colombo - Soldiers overran separatist Tamil rebel bunkers and traded artillery fire in Sri Lanka's embattled north, leaving 36 insurgents dead, the military said on Sunday, just days after a 2002 ceasefire officially collapsed.
Troops destroyed four bunkers in the Nagarkovil and Muhamalai areas of Jaffna peninsula Saturday, killing six Tamil Tiger rebels, the Defence Ministry said.
Separately, soldiers attacked two bunkers in Mannar district's Adampan village and exchanged artillery rounds with the rebels, killing 10 of them, the ministry said.
In Parappaankandal village, also in Mannar, soldiers overran six rebel bunkers and killed 10 guerrillas, the ministry said in a statement.
Clashes also broke out on Saturday in three villages bordering Mannar, killing 10 rebels and wounding nine soldiers, the statement said.
Rebel spokesperson Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not immediately available for comment. It was not possible to obtain independent confirmation of the clashes because journalists are not allowed in the conflict areas.
Both sides often release inflated casualty figures for their opponent while lowering their own.
The government announced on Thursday it was abandoning a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire, and European truce monitors said they plan to leave the island on January 16.
More than 70 000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed since the rebels began fighting in 1983 for an independent state for the ethnic Tamil minority, claiming discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.
Despite the ceasefire, near-daily ambushes, assassinations and airstrikes have killed more than 5 000 people over the last two years.
- AP
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