Sri Lanka Revolts

Separatist Tamil rebels in eastern Sri Lanka killed six fellow Tamils for meeting with senior Indian army officers, a government official said Tuesday. All the victims, whose bodies were found early Tuesday, were killed by a bullet to the head. The bodies were found in Palukamam village about 13 miles west of Batticaloa, the main eastern town. The victims had met with the Indian officers in the village early Monday.

The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday that it will free 10 Tamil Tiger rebels in a first-time move seen as an effort to push forward a Norwegian-brokered peace process to end nearly two decades of ethnic war. The decision was announced just before the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year this weekend. In addition to giving the names of the rebels to be freed, a government statement said the military would observe a limited truce to mark the holiday.

In the government's first military success since a major rebel offensive last month, Sri Lankan troops repulsed a land-and-sea attack Saturday by hundreds of Tamil rebels. Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Sunil Tannekoon said 230 rebels and eight soldiers were killed in the fighting near a strategic northern military base. Afterward, the military reinforced its positions there, Tannekoon said. "We are fully prepared to face any new threat," he said.

Friday's bloody terrorist attack in Sri Lanka was the worst such incident since Tamil guerrillas assaulted a Buddhist shrine two years ago and killed 146 Sinhalese. Until the attack on the Anuradhapura shrine, guerrilla activity in the four-year-old civil war had been aimed almost exclusively at government military forces. It was the undisciplined, poorly trained Sri Lankan army that was most often accused of killing civilians.

Government troops launched a huge offensive Tuesday to recapture a Tamil rebel stronghold in northern Sri Lanka, deploying planes and tanks in the attack. At least 22 rebels, 18 soldiers and one civilian were killed, and 89 soldiers were wounded in the first 11 hours of fighting, military spokesman Brig. Sanath Karunaratne said. "We have recovered 22 bodies of terrorists, and there will be more," Karunaratne said.

The government said Thursday that it was willing to resume peace talks if Tamil rebels came up with a "substantial proposal" to end Sri Lanka's 17-year-old civil war. The offer came as the government continued a major offensive to retake Elephant Pass, which links Jaffna peninsula in the north with the rest of the island nation. The military said it captured a rebel armory after killing six guards Thursday.

Tamil Tiger guerrillas launched a ferocious counterattack against government troops in northern Sri Lanka as the death toll from three days of fighting rose to more than 300, military officials said. But diplomats said efforts to start talks between the government and the rebels still appeared to be on track.

Tamil Tiger guerrillas claimed to have inflicted "a humiliating military debacle" on government troops Saturday, driving them out of newly captured territory in a battle that has left hundreds dead. A Defense Ministry statement confirmed that government troops had pulled back to their original positions in Eluthumadduval, 18 miles east of Jaffna, in the face of heavy rebel shelling. According to the government, three days of fighting have left 157 soldiers dead and 860 wounded.

Separatist rebels firing guns and mortars attacked Sri Lanka's main airport and an air force base today, shutting down the nation's only international air link in one of their boldest attacks ever near the capital. Incoming flights were diverted to other countries as authorities rushed passengers and workers out of the airport. But the fighting forced some noncombatants to remain behind.

Air force planes bombed Tamil rebel camps in the north Tuesday, hours after guerrillas attacked Sri Lanka's main airport and an adjoining air base, closing the nation's only international air link. Two Israeli-built Kfir jets and two MIG-27s pounded two rebel bases on the Jaffna Peninsula, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said. The Jaffna area is a center of the 18-year separatist war. "I am confirming that our pilots took the targets successfully," Karunaratne said.

A cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and rebel Tamil Tigers took effect at midnight Monday, cheering residents of the capital, where security restrictions were eased. The implementation of the monthlong cease-fire raised hopes that the new government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam may be able to talk peace and end the 18-year civil war. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who won the Dec.

The Sri Lankan navy killed 25 Tamil Tiger guerrillas during a sea battle off the nation's northeastern coast and sank two rebel vessels, a navy officer said. One sailor died, two were wounded and a government vessel was damaged by rebel fire, the officer said. He said navy fire damaged two rebel boats during the battle 25 miles off Mullaittivu, about 170 miles northeast of Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.

A Sri Lankan ship carrying more than 1,200 government troops survived a suicide attack Sunday, fighting off a flotilla of Tamil Tiger guerrilla boats in a fierce sea battle. At least 11 soldiers were killed and 47 wounded before the rebels were driven back, the Defense Ministry said. An additional 12 soldiers were missing after the fighting, which the military said killed 15 rebels.

Tamil Tiger rebels attacked two Sri Lankan army camps today, killing seven soldiers and wounding 11 others, the Defense Ministry said. Six rebels were killed when soldiers at the seaside camps in northeastern Sri Lanka retaliated with help from naval forces, said Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Sanath Karunaratne. On Wednesday, rebels set off a land mine under a passenger bus near the port city of Trincomalee, also in the northeast, the military said. At least 15 people were wounded.

A cadre of female rebels attacked a police camp in eastern Sri Lanka, killing 16 police officers and two civilians and wounding 18 others, the government said. Seven Tamil Tiger rebels were also killed and nine wounded in the attack in Amparai, 135 miles east of Colombo, the capital. The attack was repelled after the Sri Lankan army and commandos from an anti-terrorist unit were called in, a military spokesman said.

Air force planes bombed Tamil rebel camps in the north Tuesday, hours after guerrillas attacked Sri Lanka's main airport and an adjoining air base, closing the nation's only international air link. Two Israeli-built Kfir jets and two MIG-27s pounded two rebel bases on the Jaffna Peninsula, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said. The Jaffna area is a center of the 18-year separatist war. "I am confirming that our pilots took the targets successfully," Karunaratne said.

Separatist rebels firing guns and mortars attacked Sri Lanka's main airport and an air force base today, shutting down the nation's only international air link in one of their boldest attacks ever near the capital. Incoming flights were diverted to other countries as authorities rushed passengers and workers out of the airport. But the fighting forced some noncombatants to remain behind.

Tamil Tiger guerrillas claimed to have inflicted "a humiliating military debacle" on government troops Saturday, driving them out of newly captured territory in a battle that has left hundreds dead. A Defense Ministry statement confirmed that government troops had pulled back to their original positions in Eluthumadduval, 18 miles east of Jaffna, in the face of heavy rebel shelling. According to the government, three days of fighting have left 157 soldiers dead and 860 wounded.

Tamil Tiger guerrillas launched a ferocious counterattack against government troops in northern Sri Lanka as the death toll from three days of fighting rose to more than 300, military officials said. But diplomats said efforts to start talks between the government and the rebels still appeared to be on track.

The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday that it will free 10 Tamil Tiger rebels in a first-time move seen as an effort to push forward a Norwegian-brokered peace process to end nearly two decades of ethnic war. The decision was announced just before the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year this weekend. In addition to giving the names of the rebels to be freed, a government statement said the military would observe a limited truce to mark the holiday.