Colombo: Sri Lanka's government on Sunday said it had pushed back a Tamil Tiger offensive on the northern Jaffna peninsula, but fighting continued and analysts remained sceptical that Colombo was telling the whole truth.
On Saturday, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) broke through army defences in the northern army-held Jaffna peninsula, cut off from the rest of the island by rebel lines. Telephone contact with the town remains extremely difficult.
"The area is now totally under control," an army spokesman said. "We have pushed them back behind their FDL (forward defence line)," he added.
The military said 27 personnel had been killed and 87 wounded so far in the Jaffna battle, which erupted after days of fighting further south that was initially sparked by the closure of a rebel-held sluice gate providing water to government territory.
International ceasefire monitors said they believed the rebels were trying to cut the supply lines to Jaffna, an area that has changed hands several times in two decades of civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people.
With the main Jaffna airbase apparently hit by rebel artillery fire and Tiger fighters landing by sea on a navy-held island off the peninsula, Janes' Defence Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas said the military appeared under serious pressure.
"Last night, it was looking pretty grim," he said. "With the air base under fire, one of the umbilicals to Jaffna has been cut."
Police said Special Task Force police commandos had also attacked a rebel camp in the eastern district of Batticaloa.
The fighting has been accompanied by killings and attempted assassinations in the island's south, well away from the front lines.
On Saturday evening, gunmen shot the deputy head of the government peace secretariat Kethesh Loganathan in the capital, Colombo. He died overnight in hospital.
Comments
0 comment