Colombo - Fierce fighting gripped Sri Lanka for a second day yesterday, leaving at least 344 people dead, as the government ordered a major military offensive ahead of key elections, officials said. More than 60,000 people have been killed in fighting in the past two decades.
The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) mounted two counter-attacks against military positions at Columbuthurai in the northern peninsula of Jaffna but were repulsed, the Defence Ministry said.
It said the Tamil Tigers failed to dislodge security forces from their defences as the military pounded rebel positions with aircraft and artillery, in the worst fighting in the region in four months. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had been approached by the military to return to the Tamil Tigers the bodies of an unspecified number of their cadres killed by government forces.
The latest fighting erupted when troops backed by ground attack aircraft advanced into territory held by the LTTE in the Jaffna peninsula on Sunday.