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Lankan troops launch fresh operation against rebels

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan troops on Monday launched a fresh offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula to capture a stretch of a vital highway, military officials said.

They said troops had moved out on one front south of Pallai, which has seen heavy fighting in the past two weeks since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a push for the strategic Elephant Pass military base, an isthumus linking the mainland with the peninsula.

"We have met with some success," military spokesman Brigadier Palitha Fernando told Reuters without elaborating.

Hundreds of rebels and soldiers have been killed or wounded in the fighting as the LTTE tried to win back their former stronghold they lost in 1996.

The two sides have pounded each other with artillery and mortars while the Sri Lanka air force has bombed several rebel targets as the LTTE has resisted the military's advance.

Fighting has trapped thousands of civilians in the war-torn areas of Jaffna, preventing them from moving to safer places.

Meanwhile the army is once again seeking fresh recruits to fill its depleting ranks.

The defence ministry in a statement seen by Reuters on Monday appealed to "all patriotic youth" to sign up in its commando regiment "so that they can perform their national duty with determination".

The LTTE is fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east since 1983. Nearly 60,000 people have been killed in the war.-Reuters