Sri Lanka military says kills 49 rebels, bombs north

Sri Lanka air force jets bombed rebel positions in the far north on Monday while troops killed 49 Tamil Tiger rebels in fresh fighting, the military said.

The air raids on the black Tiger or suicide-cadre training base, in rebel-held Kilinochchi in the north of the country, came a day after a suspected rebel suicide bomber killed the country's highways minister and 13 others attending a marathon race near the capital on Sunday.

Air raids were also carried out at a rebel bunker line in the northern Jaffna peninsula, the air force said.

The Sri Lankan government has asked VIPs who face threats from the Tigers, and the general public, to be vigilant for more attacks due to rebel defeats in northern battle fronts.

"They (the rebels) are desperate," said Lakshman Hulugalla, director general at the Media Centre for National Security.

"With the defeat that the LTTE is having in north, they will try more. So we have asked politicians who have more threats to be more vigilant." Sunday's attack came amidst an offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military on the northern strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which the military said 47 rebels and a soldier were killed. The military said two other rebels were killed in Monday fighting.

The rebels have in the past hit back with bombings in Colombo and in the relatively peaceful south of the island when they have come under military pressure in the north and east.

The Tigers, who are fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island in a 25-year civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, were not available for comment on the latest fighting, air raids and the suicide bombing.

The government and rebels make death toll claims that are rarely possible to verify independently.

MINISTER KILLED

Highways and Road Development Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, 55, was a member of the government negotiating team for failed peace talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels two years ago, and the second minister to be killed since January, when minister for nation building, D.M. Dassanayake, died in a roadside blast.

Nordic truce monitors, who blamed troops and rebels for repeated abuses, were banished by the government after President Mahinda Rajapaksa formally scrapped a 6-year truce in January, accusing the rebels of using it to regroup and re-arm, and vowed to fight them militarily.

Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of the long-running war, given superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island's east.

But they see no clear winner on the horizon and rebels still retain the striking capability despite high security and military gains.

"Threats to VIP's, important installations and senior military officials remain," said Iqbal Athas, an analyst with Jane's Defence Weekly in Colombo.

Source: Reuters