Sri Lanka war flares with air, sea battles

Sri Lanka's air force on Sunday bombed a Tamil Tiger training base in the Indian Ocean nation's northern jungles, a day after a fierce sea battle killed 18 insurgents, the military said. The air raid struck a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) camp near Iranamadu, site of recent battles that are part of the military's intensified offensive to retake rebel-held territory in northern Sri Lanka. The military, which had restricted information on casualty numbers over the last two weeks, declined to give any figures for the air raid. And two male university students stopped by soldiers in the military-controlled Jaffna peninsula died when troops shot one after he fired a pistol, and the other took a cyanide capsule -- the trademark of the rebels, the military said on Sunday. On Saturday, the military said it had killed 18 rebels, including seven "Black Tiger" suicide fighters in a sea battle east of the northern Jaffna Peninsula. The casualty figures are based on intercepted rebel communications, the military said. "The Navy special boat squadron had observed a cluster of small LTTE boats off Nagarkovil sea, and killed 14 LTTE cadres and injured 16," Navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanyaka said, adding that five sailors were wounded. Air force jets shortly thereafter destroyed two fleeing boats and killed four other rebels, the military said. But the rebel-linked www.TamilNet.com web site quoted the Tigers as saying the destroyed a Navy boat and hovercraft in the clash. It also said seven "Black Tigers" were killed. A separate land battle killed at least 13 Tigers at Paddariyalvillu, near the northwest coast, it said. The military in the last week has said it captured a number of rebel defence lines, including taking control of the port of Nachikudda, on the northwestern coast where it has been fighting for more than a month to shut down rebel naval operations there. The Tigers are fighting to create a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils, many of whom complain of marginalisation by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since independence from Britain in 1948. But the government says the rebels must be destroyed, because they are on a host of terrorism lists including those from the United States, Indian and Europe, and says it is increasingly confident of defeating them soon.