Sri Lanka military presses offensive to break rebel blockade of reservoir

Sri Lanka's military pounded rebel positions with bombs and artillery shells as it pressed its offensive to wrest a key reservoir from the insurgents, a push that has sparked the country's most intense fighting in four years.

With Tamil Tiger rebels saying a 2002 cease-fire is done, the two sides also engaged in a brief sea battle in the waters off the northeastern port of Trincomalee, and a pro-rebel Web site the rebels killed 14 sailors.

Another six sailors were killed when the insurgents shelled a nearby navy base, the TamilNet Web site reported.

Amid the violence, Sweden, one of the Nordic countries contributing to a cease-fire monitoring mission, said it was pulling its 15-member team out of the country.

The ground offensive is taking place just outside Trincomalee, and the fierce fighting has kept outsiders away from the battlefield, where the army said its advancing soldiers were coming under artillery bombardment and gunfire from Tamil Tiger rebels.

In response, ``our air force is targeting terrorist bases and our ground troops have started operations today,'' military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said, adding soldiers were using artillery to soften up rebel positions.

The bombing and shelling was also intended to prevent the rebels from bringing in reinforcements, he added.

The government's offensive got off to a bloody start Monday, with fighting around Trincomalee to break the 12-day rebel blockade of a canal gate and other clashes killing at least 68 people _ 39 rebels, 27 soldiers and two civilians, the military said.

Despite the ferocity of the fighting and sporadic clashes elsewhere, the large-scale violence for the time being appeared to be contained in the area around Trincomalee and had not spread to other flash points along the frontiers between government and rebel territory.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the rebels are formally known, took up arms in 1983 to fight for a homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils, who had faced decades of discrimination from the country's 14 million Sinhalese.

The civil war killed about 65,000 people before a 2002 cease-fire, which left wide swaths of the north and east under rebel control.

But in recent months the cease-fire has nearly collapsed, and renewed fighting has killed more than 800 people _ half of them civilians _ since December, according to Nordic cease-fire monitors.

The Tigers surrounded the reservoir _ which is in guerrilla-controlled territory but supplies about 60,000 villagers in government-run areas with water _ on July 20, accusing the government of reneging on a promise to build a water tower for those living in rebel areas.

Following the rebels' seizure of the reservoir, 220 kilometers (135 miles) northeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka's military responded with four days of airstrikes on rebel bases in the area before deploying ground forces on Sunday.

The government has insisted its offensive is not a cease-fire violation, describing it as a humanitarian mission.

But a top rebel commander said Monday the Tigers considered the cease-fire void, and the head of the Nordic monitoring mission warned of an impending disaster.

``In reality, there is no cease-fire agreement in this area in Trincomalee today, but the paper is still valid,'' said Ulf Henricsson, the retired Swedish general in charge of the mission.

``A full-scale war will be a disaster for both sides,'' he added.

Later Tuesday, Sweden said it decided to pull its observers from Sri Lanka because the rebels have demanded the withdrawal of all monitors from countries that belong to the European Union, which in May declared the Tigers terrorists.

``Unfortunately I reached the conclusion that, when one of the partners no longer accepts the presence of Nordic EU countries, it would be very difficult to remain there,'' Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson told Swedish radio.

It was not immediately clear when the Swedish monitors, like Henricsson, would depart, although the Tamil rebels have set a Sept. 1 deadline for their withdrawal.

Denmark and Finland, also EU members, said last week they were pulling out their monitors, leaving Norway and Iceland as the remaining countries in the monitoring mission.

Meanwhile, TamilNet said unidentified gunmen killed two Tamils in separate incidents late Monday and Tuesday in northeastern Sri Lanka.