Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels launched a new attack overnight on the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula, the army said on Thursday, as a US envoy visited the island for talks. The military said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had launched a night-time offensive along the front line with assault boats and infantry but said it had largely been repulsed with some 70 rebel bodies left in no-man's-land. "Tiger boats fired at the security forces," said an army spokesman. "The security forces retaliated with air strikes. Overall, we believe over 100 LTTE were killed," he added. There is now no access to the area and phone lines are down. Diplomats are sceptical about claims by both sides, suspecting they talk down their own casualties and exaggerate enemy deaths. "If there is no success getting the two parties back to the ceasefire, we will see a long military struggle where, as is usual in this island, no one will win," retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson told Reuters in his Colombo headquarters.
Jaffna, birthplace of many of the senior rebel leadership and central to their fight for an ethnic Tamil homeland, is cut off from the rest of the island by Tiger territory and troops must be brought in by sea and air. “The LTTE’s objective does not seem to be to capture Jaffna,” said Janes’ Defence Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas. “They don’t have the conventional forces. Their objective is to besiege Jaffna and grind down the military,” he said.
