Jaffna (Sri Lanka) The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) announced on Saturday that they had broken through army defences in the island's far north and were advancing on the government-held Jaffna peninsula – a move that could kick off a full-scale civil war in the country.
The announcement was made by an LTTE official on Voice of Tigers, a radio station run by the outfit.
LTTE said they had destroyed army checkpoints and were advancing along the main A9 arterial road that connects Jaffna to their stronghold.
Aid workers reported pockets of fighting inside government territory near army defence lines and truce monitors received reports of fighting on beaches near Jaffna. Residents said hundreds were fleeing fishing villages near Jaffna.
The military said it still controlled the whole peninsula and had killed 100 LTTE rebels, but said a few might have got through.
The Navy said it had sunk five Sea Tiger boats near Jaffna. "We have completely destroyed the army checkpoints at the Muhamalai (border) crossing, and we are advancing on Jaffna," a Tiger official at the rebel Voice of Tigers radio station told Reuters, asking not to be named.
He said that the rebels' feared Sea Tiger wing had attacked just south of Jaffna town and assaulted a navy base at the island's northern tip before dawn. Hundreds of residents fled villages near Jaffna, and sought refuge in Catholic churches.
Expatriates headed to a UN compound after being warned to leave immediately. Around 40,000 troops are stationed in Jaffna, which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel territory.
Artillery fire:
In the east of the island, the Tigers rained artillery on the strategic port of Trincomalee, a vital maritime army supply line to Jaffna, before dawn. The military said there was some damage, but gave no details.
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Sri Lanka's Tamils consider Jaffna their cultural homeland, and analysts say the Tigers are intent on recapturing it. Some distraught residents dread being displaced yet again.
"We cannot go on like this forever," said Richard, a retired Tamil merchant seaman, refusing to give his family name. "I incurred heavy financial losses when I was displaced in 1995, and it took me some time to rebuild my house." "It is better to hand over Jaffna to the LTTE.
Only then will this stop. Until then, this war will go on." Robban Nilsson of the unarmed Nordic truce monitoring mission said government fighting on new fronts in the north and east was very worrying.
Fight over water
The military accused the Tigers of provoking the northern confrontation and the government has said it will not halt operations until it controls a disputed waterway in the east and an irrigation reservoir that feeds it. This was the issue which sparked the fighting 18 days ago.
The Tigers insist the land is theirs and say continued army attacks are effectively a declaration of war. Monitors said nearly 300 majority Sinhalese civilians in government areas had been given assault rifles near the sluice area. "The problem is the government basically started this.
I think we are inclined to sit back and let them take it on the chin for a while," said one diplomat from a G7 country. North of the town of Batticaloa towards a sluice gate on the waterway, the Red Cross say at least 15,000 Tamils are displaced behind rebel lines having spent days under shellfire.
A further 30,000 people are in camps in government territory. The Tigers have long demanded a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka but President Mahinda Rajapakse has ruled this out.
The rebels say any return to stalled peace talks is a distant prospect.
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