Stiff resistance stalled the government's onslaught, which was backed by Israeli-built Kfir jets, after about six hours, high-ranking military sources said on Wednesday.
The bloodshed hit
The military sources said the casualties occurred in the Muhamalai area of the
The warring parties blamed each other for the escalation.
Defence Ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the operation was intended to neutralise a rebel build-up near the front line on the
"There were attempts to infiltrate our defence lines in three places and we took counter-measures," Samarasinghe told AFP. "They had been firing artillery at our positions in the past few days and last night we noticed a build-up."
The military said its ground offensive, supported by warplanes, was a "defensive act" as a result of Tamil Tiger attacks.
"We can't verify the reports but it is something the LTTE has informed us of," said Thorfinnur Omarsson, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
However, Omarsson said they also had information that the fighting had died down by mid-day. Both sides said the offensive was launched just before dawn.
"The offensive, shattering peace hopes, comes few hours after an official announcement by
The LTTE said the military was carrying out a three-pronged attack against rebel-held territory in the
"Intense clashes are going on," the LTTE said in a statement sent to
Some 60,000 people have been killed overall in the three-decades-old conflict between minority Tamils seeking an independent homeland and government forces.
October's planned talks represent the latest attempt to quell the recent bloody upsurge in violence.
"It is crucial that the government and the LTTE now use this opportunity to cease hostilities," Erik Solheim,
The LTTE had warned it would reconsider its decision to go to
The government had said it only agreed to talks on the basis that it could defend itself from rebel attacks.
Associated Press, Wed October 11, 2006 06:12 EDT . COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Fierce fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tigers on the besieged Jaffna peninsula has left 22 soldiers and a ``large number'' of rebels dead, the government said Wednesday.
Security forces along the forward defense line near Muhamalai had been ``forced to retaliate'' to sporadic attacks by rebels since late Tuesday, using heavy artillery and rockets, the Media Center for National Security said.
It said the air force and navy had helped ``neutralize and destroy identified Tiger concentrations and reinforcements by the sea.''
The fighting killed 22 soldiers and a ``large number'' of rebels, it said, adding that 113 troops were wounded.
A rebel spokesman said he could not comment on the casualty figures.
Associated Press, Wed October 11, 2006 06:12 EDT
Security forces had been ``forced to retaliate,'' using heavy artillery and rockets, after sporadic attacks by rebels since Tuesday along the de facto border separating government and rebel-held areas near Muhamalai, on the Jaffna peninsula, the Media Center for National Security said.
It said the air force and navy had helped ``neutralize and destroy identified Tiger concentrations and reinforcements by the sea.''
The fighting killed 22 soldiers and a ``large number'' of rebels, it said, adding that 113 troops were wounded.
A rebel spokesman said he could not comment on the casualty figures.
Witnesses said civil servants and students living close to the battlefield were forced to return home, fearing the fighting could leave them stranded in the north. Bus services into Thennamarachchi and Chavakachcheri areas in the south of the peninsula have been stopped, they said.
``They have begun a large-scale operation along the northern defense line,'' the Tiger's military spokesman, Irasiah Ilanthirayan, told The Associated Press by telephone from the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.
He said the military started shelling rebel positions late Tuesday night and that ground troops had advanced across their front line early Wednesday.
``They are advancing from all around the defense line,'' Ilanthirayan said.
Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said the rebels started attacking army positions overnight.
``The air force launched strikes on Tamil Tiger positions to neutralize their attack,'' Samarasinghe said.
He did not say what damage the attacks caused, adding that the air strikes had now ended.
The battle comes after the rebels' political chief Suppiah Thamilselvan on Tuesday agreed to attend peace talks with the government later this month. The Norwegian government _ which brokered a 2002 cease-fire agreement _ said Tuesday that the talks are scheduled to be held in
Thamilselvan, who met Tuesday with Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar, warned, however, that the rebels could withdraw from talks if military aggression continues.
It was not immediately clear how the latest military action would affect the peace talks.
Palitha Kohona, the chief of the government's peace secretariat, said ``the government has not launched any offensive in
A spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said they could not comment on whether a major offensive has begun as they have no first-hand information. The team, which was set up to oversee the cease-fire, recently closed down many of their local offices citing an unstable security situation.
A pro-rebel Web site reported Tuesday that the army had rushed rockets, mortar shells and other military hardware to its forward defense lines on
The rebels' political wing said at the weekend that reliable intelligence suggested the military was preparing to launch a major attack on rebel and civilian settlements in the Tamil-majority north under a scorched-earth policy.
The military controls almost all of the
The rebels made a major push to retake the peninsula on Aug. 12.
Dozens of combatants have been killed since last week in fighting in northeastern
The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, citing decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. About 65,000 people were killed before a 2002 cease-fire.
