SITUATION REPORT - SRI LANKA ON 12.08.2006

Deputy Head of the Government's Peace Secretariat shot in Colombo

Colombo, August 12, 2006, 10.23 p.m.. Suspected Tamil tiger rebels today evening shot the deputy secretary general of the Sri Lankan government's peace secretariat Kethesh Loganatha at Dehiwela. Attempts made by the Lanka Academic to verify Mr. Loganathan's condition was futile, but initial reports claimed that he had died, this is however is yet to be confirmed.

A police officer attached to the Dehiwela police station told the Lanka Academic that he was unable to give exact details about the incident because the team gone to investigate the incident had yet not returned to the station.

Rebels say break Sri Lanka armys northern defences

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said on Saturday they had broken through army defences in the island's far north and were advancing on the government-held Jaffna peninsula, in the fiercest fighting since a 2002 truce.

The Tigers said they had pushed through a no-man's-land that separates rebel and government territory, destroyed army checkpoints on the other side and were advancing along the main A9 arterial road that connects the peninsula to their stronghold.

Aid workers reported pockets of fighting inside government territory near army forward defence lines, and truce monitors had received reports of fighting on beaches near Jaffna. Residents said hundreds were fleeing fishing villages near Jaffna.

The military said it still controlled the whole peninsula and had killed around 100 rebels, but said a few might have got through.

"We have completely destroyed the army checkpoints at the Muhamalai (border) crossing, and we are advancing on Jaffna," a Tiger official at the rebel Voice of Tigers radio station told Reuters, asking not to be named.

Tamil rebels push to recapture Sri Lanka 's Jaffna Peninsula

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Tamil Tiger rebels mounted a fierce offensive Saturday to retake Sri Lanka - 's northern Jaffna Peninsula, the heart of the island's Tamil minority, the military and rebels said, amid the heaviest fighting since the two sides signed a 2002 cease-fire. Meanwhile, a senior peace co-ordinating official of Sri Lanka - 's government was shot dead Saturday in a suburb of the capital, Colombo, police and a doctor said.

Ketheesh Loganathan, deputy head of the government's Peace Secretariat, which has coordinated a Norway-brokered peace process between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels since 2002, was shot at his home, police officer N.K. Illangakoon said.

Dr. W.G Gunawardene confirmed that Loganathan had died. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the killing or the motive.

Loganathan was formally a political adviser to the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, a former militant separatist group that fought to create a separate homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils.

EPRLF gave up arms in 1987 and has since opposed policies of the Tigers.

Saturday's fighting began early in the morning, when the rebels launched attacks against navy camps in the town of Trincomalee, and later pushed against government forces in Muhamalai and elsewhere, Jayawardana said.

A pro-rebel Web site, TamilNet, said the insurgents had overrun an army checkpoint at the village along the dividing line, but a statement from the defense ministry said soldiers had beaten them back, and that government forces were in ``firm and full control over the peninsula.''

The Jaffna Peninsula is considered the traditional home of Sri Lanka - 's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils. Most of the peninsula, including Jaffna city, is controlled by the government, but the rebels control a number of scattered areas.

It was the scene of intense fighting during Sri Lanka - 's two decade-long civil war, with control changing sides a couple times before ending up in government hands after a military offensive in 1995.

The main navy base in Trincomalee is a key supply point for the 40,000 Sri Lankan troops stationed on the peninsula.

The region around the fighting has been sealed off to outsiders, and there was no way to independently confirm the situation.

An ethnic Tamil lawmaker, meanwhile, said civilians in parts of the peninsula were trapped by heavy fighting, and are without electricity and telephones.

``People are not allowed to move to save their lives. The Sri Lankan government, by imposing a curfew, has kept them as human shields,'' said Nadaraja Raviraj, a lawmaker from Jaffna.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

The 2002 cease-fire was intended to halt more than two decades of bloodshed between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of the country.

While the cease-fire remains officially in effect, it has been left in shreds by weeks of fighting.

The latest conflict started when the rebels blocked the flow of water from a reservoir to government-held villages in the northeast on July 20, accusing officials of backtracking on a pledge to boost water to rebel-held areas. After days of fighting the sluice was reopened, with both sides claiming credit for ending the water crisis.

Sri Lankan rebels suffer massive loss: More than 100 Tigers killed overnight

Colombo, August 12, 2006, 7.10 p.m.. The LTTE has suffered a massive loss due to yesterday's fighting that erupted in Jaffna, with the organization reportedly losing more than 100 tiger rebels.

The media centre for national security said that, "tiger terrorists in their attempts to disrupt the Security Forces defences in Jaffna peninsula experienced humiliation when they suffered heavy casualties on the face of the Security Forces' retaliations."

Terrorists tried to attack the Forward Defence Lines (FDL) at Muhammalai and the defences at Kayts last evening and during the early hours of today by using heavy artillery and mortars with the intention of capturing the government controlled territory.

However during the battles at Muhammalai tigers suffered 30-35 cadres killed of whom some bodies are still lying in front of the FDLs. The government Air Strikes and the Multi Barrel Artillery attacks is estimated to have killed over 54 cadres who were kept as reserves at Poonarin. While another 20-25 sea tigers were killed at Kayts.

"Security Forces are at present consolidating their defences and conducting cordon and search operations to find and destroy any terrorists in the vicinity," the centre added. During the defensive operations the Security Forces had 36 soldiers injured of whom 7 were in critical conditions.