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Lankan troops, Tigers in fresh artillery duel

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan troops and Tamil rebels exchanged mortar and artillery fire in the country's north as the latest round of fighting entered its fourth week, military officials said on Monday.

The artillery duel came as International relief agency Medecins sans Frontiers (MSF) urged the Sri Lankan government to allow the immediate re-supply of urgently needed drugs to the war-torn north where stocks were running out.

Military officials said suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels had planted a bomb on a railway track in the northern government-controlled town of Vavuniya late on Sunday, derailing two compartments of an empty train.

No one was wounded in the blast, they said.

The defence ministry said in a statement rebels had fired mortars at troops manning defences on the northern Jaffna peninsula and the military had retaliated with artillery.

The peninsula has been the scene of some fierce fighting in the past three weeks since the LTTE launched a fresh push to capture Jaffna, their former stronghold they lost in 1996.

Government troops had killed at least 20 LTTE rebels in various clashes in the peninsula on Sunday.

Two government soldiers were wounded in the battles, it said.

The statement said the two sides also exchanged mortar and artillery fire in the northern Wanni region, vast parts of which were captured by the rebels last November when they pushed the military out of several large camps in the area.

The LTTE has been 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 fighting.

MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, said in the past three months drug supplies had run low in the northern Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi districts and attempts by humanitarian agencies to renew supplies had been thwarted by security forces.

Many patients in the area were suffering from chronic, debilitating diseases such as diabetes, asthma and cardiac problems, and even basic medicines such as paracetamol, antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs were in short supply, the group said in a statement.

"On two occasions within the last week, MSF has been prevented by security forces from transporting drugs and medical supplies through the forward defence lines to Mallavi hospital in the Mullaithivu district," the group said.

A large part of Wanni region, where the Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi districts are situated, is under LTTE control. Medical supplies cannot be sent there without defence ministry permission.

"We are facing a situation where clinics and hospitals have closed or are no longer accepting patients because they cannot provide treatment for these civilians, many of whom are women and children," Isabel Simpson, head of the Sri Lankan mission of MSF (Netherlands) said in the statement.

It said three months of supplies from the ministry of health were also awaiting approval for transport into the northern region.-Reuters