HEAVY fighting erupted today in Sri Lanka with the military reporting the recovery of 22 bodies of Tamil rebels after a Norwegian envoy failed to secure a deal to re-launch peace talks. Government forces repulsed a major Tamil separatist offensive against defence lines in Mankerni in the coastal district of Batticaloa, the defence ministry said.However, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) denied launching any offensive and in turn accused the military of starting a fresh push into guerrilla territory. "Sri Lankan troops are advancing into our territory and they have moved about one and a half kilometres," LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said by telephone from the rebel-held northern town of Kilinochchi.
He said he had no immediate details of the casualties, but added that the LTTE had already lodged protests with Sri Lanka's peace broker Norway and complained to the Scandinavian truce monitors. "Our defence council is going to take a decision on this situation," he said.
The defence ministry said ground forces in the northern peninsula of Jaffna had also today destroyed a rebel fuel depot located at a small islet off the northern mainland. The ministry said fighting in the eastern region was sparked by the Tigers. "We have recovered the bodies of 22 Tiger cadres and they may have suffered more casualties," a military official in the east said by telephone. "We have about five soldiers seriously wounded."