The Sri Lankan military said today it killed at least 19 Tamil Tigers in a fierce battle in the east, where many fear escalating violence will lead the country back to full-scale war.
The Sri Lankan military sent tanks and warplanes into eastern Batticaloa district yesterday after the rebels attacked government troops, the defence department said.
Fifteen rebels were killed in artillery and air strikes, while another four rebels died, and about 25 were wounded, in a separate encounter with security forces in the district, the military said.
The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, however, said only one of their fighters died, and claimed to have killed seven government commandoes. They also accused the government of launching an offensive to seize control of their territory in Batticaloa.
Batticaloa has been home to a breakaway faction of the mainstream rebels since a powerful eastern commander split in 2004 with 6,000 fighters. The uprising was suppressed by the northern-based rebels, although the renegades enjoy influence, and alleged military backing, in the area.
Major Upali Rajapakse, a military spokesman, said the rebels "launched a classic, conventional attack on our troops" at dawn yesterday in Batticaloa district. He said the military responded and called in tanks and air support to bomb the rebels' long-range gun positions.
The Tigers have been fighting for over two decades for a separate homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority, citing discrimination by the Sinhalese majority. A 2002 cease-fire temporarily took the steam out of the bloody civil war, but since last December, airstrikes, mine attacks, assassinations and heavy arms fire have killed more than 3,200 fighters and civilians.