Sri Lanka continues offensive despite rebel war threat

A Sri Lankan soldier takes cover in Mutur, where 15 aid workers were executed. Picture / Reuters

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's army vowed on Monday to push on with a military campaign to wrest control of an eastern water supply from Tamil Tigers just hours after the rebels warned continued attacks were a declaration of war.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) offered on Sunday to end a fortnight-long blockade of water to government land to defuse the heaviest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire, but the army replied with heavy artillery and multi-barrel rockets.

The Tigers warned they may retaliate if the army offensive continues, and say Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer - who is visiting their northern stronghold of Kilinochchi - has until he heads back to Colombo to revive a failed peace bid.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed and killed a top elite police commando with a claymore mine in the ancient central hill capital of Kandy early on Monday, bomb squad officers said.

The east was more quiet.

"There has been no artillery fired this morning," a military spokesman said. "But the operation to secure the water supply is still on."

The government says the Tigers must vacate the area around the blocked water sluice, land both sides claim is theirs under the truce.

"We consider this a declaration of war and strongly condemn the attitude of the government," Tiger political wing leader S P Thamilselvan said late on Sunday.

"We may have to take a defensive position if the shelling continues. It is not decided yet," he added.

The Tigers had just offered to open a disputed sluice gate to allow water to farmers in government areas - a key government demand - and had also said they would withdraw to 2002 ceasefire lines.

As the head of the unarmed Nordic-staffed ceasefire monitoring mission, retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson, headed towards the sluice gate with a rebel leader to reopen it on Sunday, army artillery opened fire.

"It seems some people want war rather than water," Henricsson said.

Well over 800 people had been killed so far this year even before recent fighting in which the military say they killed over 150 rebels and in which dozens of civilians are also said to be dead.

The Tigers said another 15 civilians were also killed in government shelling of rebel areas in the northeast on Sunday.

After days of rumours, 15 local aid workers helping with relief after the 2004 tsunami were on Sunday confirmed executed in the eastern town of Mutur - which has been devastated by fighting and artillery fire south of the port of Trincomalee.

A pro-rebel website blamed government forces for the killings of the aid workers in Mutur, scene of days of fierce fighting that forced most of the population to flee. But the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA), who found the bodies, said they did not know who was responsible.

Around 21,000 newly displaced people - most of them Muslims - have been registered so far, and local community leaders say thousands more have been forced from their homes.

- REUTERS