S.Lanka rebels say army shells refugees, kills 15
Source: Reuters
(Updates death toll, adds fresh rebel comment) By Simon Gardner COLOMBO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan army artillery fire hit two camps in rebel territory in the island's northeast, killing 15 refugees and injuring many more, the Tamil Tigers said on Saturday. Two days earlier the army had accused the rebels of a similar attack. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also said the military mounted a major offensive in the eastern district of Batticaloa to push into their territory, which the army denied and accused the rebels of using civilians as cover. As with other recent clashes, independent confirmation of what had happened behind rebel lines was impossible. "The army shells hit the camps and 15 IDPs (internally displaced persons) are dead," rebel military spokesman Rasaiah Ilanthiraiyan told Reuters from the Tigers' northern stronghold. "They also advanced 2.5 km into our territory in an offensive, firing artillery and multi-barrel rockets and using battle tanks," Ilanthiraiyan added. "We have recovered five bodies of Sri Lankan army soldiers." The incident occurred two days after the military said Tiger artillery hit a school in northeast Sri Lanka, killing a teacher, a schoolboy, three civilians and wounding 10 students. The military said the Tigers continued to fire artillery further north in the neighbouring district of Trincomalee on Saturday, and said two soldiers were killed and 30 injured in retaliatory strikes. HUMAN SHIELDS? "They were firing at our villages at a heavy rate. It is a possibility if they say IDPs were killed. We don't know," said Major Upali Rajapakse, senior coordinator at the Media Centre for National Security. "We were retaliating at their gun positions," he added. "If IDPs were killed, then they were keeping civilians as human shields. If they say IDPs were killed, it is their fault." Aid workers said around 50 displaced persons had reached the town of Kantale on Saturday morning, but the military had since closed access routes. The fighting broke out after President Mahinda Rajapakse this week introduced new anti-terrorism laws in a crackdown on the Tigers and their supporters, after a failed suicide attack on his brother Gotabhaya, who is his Defence Secretary. The rebels say the measures will only worsen a new chapter in the island's two-decade-old civil war. Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran last week declared the Tigers were resuming their independence struggle. More than 67,000 people have been killed since 1983 and more than 3,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters have already been killed so far this year. Air strikes, suicide attacks and major artillery battles are increasingly common. On Friday, the rebels called on the government to reopen the island's main north-south highway, which runs through their territory to the army-held northern Jaffna peninsula. Analysts say the closure has badly hampered rebel movements and their ability to mount attacks. The Tigers also rounded on the international community, peace mediator Norway and the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which oversees the remnants of a 2002 ceasefire, warning Sri Lanka was heading for "a monumental irrecoverable state of destruction".
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