Sri Lanka says it repulses fresh rebel attack

October 6, 2000
Web posted at: 3:13 PM HKT (0713 GMT)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- Sri Lanka said on Friday it had repulsed another fierce assault by Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's northern Jaffna peninsula, and that it had destroyed an artillery gun that was shelling the area's only airport.

But casualties mounted from rebel attacks elsewhere in the island as it prepared for Tuesday's parliamentary elections.

"Over 100 terrorists of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) launched a massive attack on our defences at Nagar Kovil on Thursday evening," military spokesman, Brig. Snath Karunaratne, told Reuters by telephone in Colombo.

"The attack was repulsed very effectively....," he said.

He could not give details of casualties.

The key town of Nagar Kovil is part of the army's southern-most defence line in the peninsula which has been under almost constant attack since the LTTE launched a massive offensive last week to reverse a string of army victories.

Karunaratne also said the airforce had destroyed a heavy artillery gun which was firing shells at Palaly, the massive military complex which houses the peninsula's only airport.

The airport, which has been under artillery fire since Sunday, is the effective lifeline of 30,000 troops stationed on the peninsula who are cut off from the mainland by a swathe of rebel-controlled territory.

Karunaratne said flights out of Palaly, in the extreme north of the peninsula, had been disrupted by bad weather.

Other military officials said around 12 shells had fallen inside the sprawling security zone around the airport on Thursday, but had not hit the airstrip.

Artillery hit the airstrip during a massive LTTE onslaught earlier this year, triggering panic in the ranks and prompting the government to seek help from neighbouring India.

Karunaratne said the LTTE had not gained any ground since last week's fierce onslaught forced the army to pull back its defences in the peninsula's south by at least one kilometer (0.6 mile).

There was no immediate comment from the LTTE.

Officials say more than 800 troops and rebels have been killed since the military launched a series of offensives last month that drove the LTTE out of Chavakachcheri -- the peninsula's second largest town.

The offensives began on September 3, a day before the start of official campaigning for general elections. The final election rallies will be on Saturday.

The death toll from a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomb attack on Thursday at an election rally of the ruling People's Alliance in central Sri Lanka rose to 10 dead with 40 injured.

Deputy Health Minister Tissa Karalliyedda narrowly escaped assassination in the attack in the town of Medawachchiya, some 216 kilometers northeast of capital Colombo.

At least 40 people have been killed in a spate of rebel suicide bombings since the campaign began.

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