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Five killed as Tigers slow military advance
A roadside bomb killed five people, including Tamil Tiger insurgents, in an apparent ambush in rebel-held territory in Sri Lankas far north on Tuesday, Nordic truce monitors said. The attack in Mankulam, along the islands main north-south artery that spans government and rebel territory, is the latest in a spree of roadside bombs attacks in recent months, the vast majority of them against government troops. The unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission initially reported eight Tigers were killed. We are hearing contradictory reports, but it seems now that five were killed, a spokesman for the monitors said. It was a Claymore attack. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said a medical services team comprising rebel fighters and civilian medical personnel was targeted by Sri Lankan troops and that four people were killed and two injured. Military analysts say deep penetration units of soldiers are operating behind Tiger lines using guerrilla tactics to fight the insurgents on their own terms, and suggest a new chapter in a two-decade civil war will escalate further. It was an attack by a deep penetration unit of the Sri Lankan army, rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi. It was a medical unit going to attend to medical services in a village. Four were killed on the spot. This is not the first, he added. There is a cordon and search operation going on throughout the area to stop the perpetrators. The Sri Lankan military was not immediately available for comment. Tigers slow military advance: Tamil Tiger rebels in the east of Sri Lanka are showing stiff resistance and have slowed a military advance on a strategic jungle base, defence authorities here said Tuesday. Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters that the Tiger rebels were still holed up in a small area known as Thoppigala, adding that they had buried mines and were slowing the military campaign. We have captured about 98 percent of the territory, but the balance two percent wont be in a matter of days, Rambukwella said, dismissing media reports that troops were about to take Thoppigala. It may even take two years, he said. He said the objective of the security forces was not limited to capturing Thoppigala, but was to take full control over the multi-ethnic eastern province by neutralising the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Posted by: Fred 2007-07-11 |
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