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Heavy fighting has gripped Sri Lanka as Tamil Tiger rebels and troops blamed each other for renewed battles and India sent a top envoy to discuss the worsening violence.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they killed seven police and lost one of their fighters in an encounter in the district of Ampara while more fighting raged in the neighbouring district of Batticaloa.
However, the defence ministry said only three constables and a “homeguard”, or a paramilitary policeman, were killed in the clash at Ampara where the ministry said the rebels suffered “severe losses.”
Sri Lanka's defence ministry said war planes pounded bases of the LTTE in the northeastern district of Mullaitivu where the rebels have their main military installations.
“Air strikes were launched following confirmation by air force unmanned aerial vehicles that these were Sea Tiger bases,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said the Tiger bases had the capacity to launch attacks on naval patrols in the area.
The fresh air strikes came as New Delhi sent Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to the island to discuss with Sri Lankan officials the upsurge in fighting and the plight of civilians, diplomats said.
Menon, a former ambassador to Colombo who arrived here late Wednesday, is due to meet with President Mahinda Rajapakse who begins a four-day visit to India later this week.
New Delhi has expressed deep concern over the plight of minority Tamils in the embattled northeast where there has been a spike in clashes between troops and Tiger rebels.
Sri Lanka's minority Tamils share close cultural and religious links with the 60 million ethnic Tamils in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The LTTE said Thursday that government troops backed by tanks, artillery and air cover were advancing on rebel positions in the district of Batticaloa.
“The military has launched a ground offensive to capture real estate,” said Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan. “They have come up to our defence line at Vakarai.”
However, the defence ministry said it was the Tigers who launched an offensive and that security forces had repulsed two major attacks on military bases in the area.
The ministry said seven soldiers were wounded in the battle, but gave no details of rebel casualties.
“The security forces sought the assistance of the air force to engage their (Tiger) gun and mortar positions, in addition to the use of all other resources available there,” the ministry said in a statement.
Tiger spokesman Ilanthiriyan said a student was killed and five others wounded in an air attack carried out in the east while there were also losses in air attacks elsewhere Thursday.
Security forces had accused the guerrillas of firing artillery and mortar bombs towards army camps in recent weeks.
The LTTE and the Sri Lankan government have escalated fighting in the past year in tit-for-tat battles that have claimed thousands of lives, frustrating efforts brokered by Norway to revive a 2002 ceasefire agreement.
The ethnic conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972.
