A dozen Sri Lankan Government soldiers and 40 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in “heavy confrontations” last Monday, according to Government officials.
The political feud is centred on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are demanding a Tamil Homeland.
After a six-year cease-fire violence has returned to the country.
The Tamil Tigers, registered as a terrorist organisation in 32 countries including the USA, the EU, and India, launched a two-decade war for a Tamil Homeland in the north and east of the island, in which 70,000 people have lost their lives fighting.
Much of the wider press has suggested that the state of the LTTE infrastructure has been weakened considerably since its height at the end of the 90s.
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, the architect of the destruction of the LTTE, has publicly announced a policy of killing at least 10 Tamil Tigers a day.
The Tamil people account for over 20% of the population and they claim that the Buddhist Sinhalese, who are in a majority, are persecuting the Tamil and in recent weeks have pointed towards the assassination of the Tigers’ spokesman.
The Tamil have been accused of forcibly removing Sinhalese and Muslims from areas under its control, most notably expelling the Muslim population from Jaffna, Sri Lanka’s second largest city, with only two hours notice.
