Sri Lanka Says Rebels Kill 5 With Bomb, Mortars

Author: 
Agencies
Publication Date: 
Mon, 2007-08-13 03:00

COLOMBO, 13 August 2007 — Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers killed four soldiers with a roadside bomb attached to a bicycle in the island’s far northern Jaffna Peninsula yesterday, the military said.

A 65-year-old man was killed in a separate rebel attack on a northern village, it said. “They attached an improvised explosive device to a bicycle and the explosion killed one soldier. Three others who were seriously injured died in hospital,” said a spokesman for the Media Center for National Security, asking not to be named in line with policy. “Thirteen others suffered minor shrapnel injuries.”

In a separate incident, Tiger mortar fire hit a village in Weli Oya in the northcentral district of Anuradhapura, killing a 65-year-old man and wounding four other civilians, including a two-and-a-half-year-old child.

The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

A spree of land and sea clashes, ambushes and air raids have killed an estimated 4,500 people since last year alone, taking the death toll of a conflict that erupted in 1983 to around 70,000.

Fighting between the state and rebels is now focused in the north after the military evicted the Tigers from their last stronghold in the east. However analysts see no clear winner on the horizon and fear the fighting could grind on for years.

Sri Lanka’s military has been unable to push into Tiger strongholds in the north due to the threat of monsoon rains and a lack of manpower, defense officials and analysts say.

The government had hoped to build on recent territorial gains in the east of the troubled island by going after guerrilla bases in the northern Wanni region, where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) run a ministate.

“Inter-monsoon rains start in October and it will be difficult to move tanks and heavy guns in boggy conditions,” said one field commander who asked not to be named.

“But in the run-up to the monsoon, there could be smaller-scale operations.” The LTTE last month admitted losing its final bastion in the jungles of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, but vowed to keep up hit-and-run attacks in the area.

One senior officer attributed the victory last month to a combination of superior tactics, firepower and guerrilla-style attacks behind enemy lines.

“What they used to do is send small groups to harass us. We had to tie up a large force to hold our static positions,” he said, requesting anonymity. “This time, we infiltrated their lines and kept them on their toes.” But for defense analyst Namal Perera, that success may require the deployment of a huge number of troops if the military wants to maintain control over the areas wrested from the rebels.

“With the manpower commitment in the east expected to be very heavy, it will be a challenge to deploy more men for a new offensive in the north,” Perera said. “It will be difficult at this time.”

“As long as the army is tied down in the east, the LTTE knows the military will not make a new push in the north.” LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan admitted the rebels had suffered a setback with the loss of territory in the east, but said the Tigers were bolstering their defenses in the north. “Militarily you can’t call this an advantageous situation,” Ilanthiriyan said. “Because, if you want to control one region, you may have to lose control over another region.” The Rivira newspaper reported that the Tigers had withdrawn cadres from the eastern front and sent them to the north.

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