Sri Lanka military takes more rebel camps in east

Sri Lankan military has taken more Tamil Tiger camps in the island's troubled eastern province as rebel mortar fire has caused the death of four soldiers, defense officials said Sunday.

Four soldiers died and two others were injured Saturday night when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels fired artillery and mortar at the Sri Lanka Army detachment at Mankerni in the eastern Batticaloa district.

Officials said that the LTTE gun positions in the eastern Trincomalee district's Vergual area was attacked by the Sri Lanka Airforce Kfir jets on Saturday.

The police's Special Task Force (STF) officials said that the STF had taken three more camps of the LTTE at Kanjikuduchiaru area in the eastern Ampara district on Saturday.

On Tuesday the STF captured the main rebel base at Kanjikuduchiaru after launching its offensive code named "Victory Assured" in the area in order to capture rebel controlled thickets in the Ampara district.

"We have made good gains in the LTTE territory and now we will set up our own camp in the area," a STF spokesman said.

The military leaders have vowed to flush the rebels out from the eastern province by retaliating the LTTE artillery and mortar fire.

The clashes since the beginning of last month in the province has caused large scale displacement of civilians as well as the killings of them.

The international community has appealed to both sides to ensure civilian safety in the conflict. The violence since December 2005 has cost over 3,800 lives by government estimates and has undermined the efforts of the Norwegian peace facilitators to try and broker an end to the island's over two decade old ethnic separatist conflict.

The LTTE rebels on behalf of the minority Tamils seek to set up a separate homeland for the Tamils in the north and eastern provinces. More than 64,000 people were killed in the conflict between the mid 1980s and 2002 when the stalled Norwegian peace facilitation began.

Source: Xinhua