Sri Lankan troops kill 2 Tamil rebels in clash, military says

Associated Press, Sun February 25, 2007 00:03 EST . DILIP GANGULY - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lankan troops killed two Tamil Tiger rebels in a clash on the northern Jaffna peninsula, the Defense Ministry said Sunday. Violence between separatist rebels and the military occurs almost daily in Sri Lanka - , where a cease-fire signed in 2002 exists only on paper. European cease-fire monitors said earlier this week that nearly 4,000 people were killed in the country over the past 15 months compared to 130 deaths in the previous three years.

On Friday, the military said its ground troops captured three Tamil Tiger rebel bases in the northeast, forcing the insurgents to flee into the jungles.

The rebels have not commented on either of the incidents, but the Tamil National Alliance, seen as a proxy party of the rebels in the Parliament, said Sri Lanka - 's military campaign leaves Tamils with no option but to go for ``self-determination and self-rule.''

``In the face of the Sri Lankan state's insistence on pursuing a military solution to the Tamil national question, the Tamil people are appealing to the international community to recognize their struggle for self-determination and self-rule,'' the TNA said in a statement Saturday.

Violence has escalated since Mahinda Rajapakse became president and moderate Ranil Wickremesinghe, who signed the truce with the rebels, left the government.

The separatist Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka - 's 3.1 million ethnic Tamils in the north and northeast, following decades of discrimination by the country's majority Sinhalese.

About 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the cease-fire.