High Security Zone Residents' Liberation Force claims respon

[narathar]

Tigers vow reprisals as Sri Lanka launches new strikes

Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:36 AM GMT

By Peter Apps

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military launched new strikes on Tamil Tiger areas in the island's northeast on Wednesday, a day after a deadly suicide bomb attack blamed on rebels shattered an already fragile ceasefire.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the new strikes came after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired on naval patrol craft off the eastern port of Trincomalee for a second day.

The Tigers said they would retaliate if the government continued the attacks, launched after a suspected suicide bomb in the capital killed nine and wounded the army commander.

"It is like a war situation in Trincomalee. If the attacks continue, the LTTE will be forced to take military defensive action," S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters.

Border crossings to rebel areas were closed and some aid workers helping rebuild after the 2004 tsunami said they were evacuating from the north and east. United Nations agencies stayed where they were, but cancelled transport.

Tiger northeastern political leader S. Elilan said shelling was continuing, that at least 10 bodies had been recovered and 25 people injured, with the number of fatalities seen likely to rise. One bomb had fallen in government territory, he said, killing other civilians.

The attacks were the first official military action since a 2002 ceasefire halted the two-decades-old civil war and raised hopes of a lasting peace. They followed a string of suspected Tiger attacks on the military and ethnic riots against Tamils.

"CALLOUS ATTACKS"

Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, who heads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that oversees the truce, said if air strikes continued, peace talks would become difficult. The worst case scenario was a return to war, he said.

"We still have a valid ceasefire agreement. No party has ended it, but of course it is not a ceasefire right now," he told Reuters.

The government had repeatedly said it would not be provoked, but changed tactics following the suicide bombing.

"This is a containment action. It is also designed to deter. Over and over again servicemen were killed in callous attacks," said Palitha Kohona, head of the government's peace secretariat, adding that he still hoped the Tigers would come to talks.

More than 100 people had already died in the bloodiest two weeks since the truce even before a female suicide bomber, disguised to look pregnant, blew herself up at Colombo's high-security army headquarters.

The Tigers on Tuesday denied responsibility for the suicide bomb attack, but the truce monitors say it is highly unlikely to be anyone else.

In a fax, the High Security Zone Residents' Liberation Force (HSZRLF), a suspected Tiger front group, took responsibility for the attack.

"HSZRLF feels that the LTTE is merely wasting time by maintaining a ceasefire," it said.

The Tigers indefinitely postponed a second round of peace talks that were to take place last week in Geneva, accusing the government of obstructing the transport of eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting. The Tigers say they are examining new government proposals.

But diplomats say they were looking for an excuse to pull out, angry the government has not reined in renegade group of ex-rebels, the Karuna group, which has been attacking the mainstream Tigers in the east.

Some fear the Tigers may be planning a return to the battlefield to win their goal of a separate Tamil homeland.

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