Sri Lankan troops and Tiger rebels were locked yesterday in the bloodiest ground battle since their 2002 truce went into effect with at least 44 combatants killed, the military said. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) accused the government of virtually declaring war on them with the latest offensive and vowed to resist a military advance to open a water canal blocked by the guerrillas 10 days ago in an area under their control. The defence ministry said it had lost at least nine soldiers killed and six wounded, but managed to take control of the sluice gates by Monday afternoon after heavy mortar bomb exchanges with the Tigers. The ministry said "over 35" Tigers were killed. The defence ministry said the offensive in the island's restive northeastern region of Trincomalee was aimed at ending the LTTE blockade of the Maavilaru waterway that had deprived thousands of farmers of water. There was no immediate reaction from the Tigers to the casualty figures claimed by the military, but the guerrillas said they were resisting the military advance. The LTTE also lodged a formal complaint with the Nordic truce monitors against the government, but made it clear they were not pulling out of the ceasefire agreement, a spokesman for the monitors said.
The Swedish-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said the LTTE protested the military action. "They (the LTTE) have said that the government is violating the ceasefire, but they have not made any decision to resign from the ceasefire agreement," spokesman Thorfinnur Omarsson told AFP. Diplomats close to the peace process said the SLMM did not take seriously remarks by a regional Tiger leader asking them to declare that truce was not holding and that the fighting "tantamounted to a declaration of war."