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Forces pound

Tamil Tiger rebels

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan forces pounded Tamil Tiger guerrillas with air, artillery and naval strikes as thousands of troops pushed deeper into the rebels' Jaffna peninsula stronghold, military and residents said on Sunday.

The army, advancing on four fronts, could be trying to trap rebel defenders by capturing a lagoon crossing and cutting off the northern peninsula from the mainland in a pincer move, residents said.

"The terrorist resistance was minimal as they started fleeing the area," a military statement said.

Troops killed at least 30 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels on Saturday, the second day of the air-land-sea assault, codenamed Operation Riviresa Two, on Tiger positions, raising the guerrilla death toll to 80, it said.

The military said troops had advanced about eight km (five miles) by Saturday after taking the rebels by surprise. Guerrilla casualties in air and navy attacks were not immediately known, it said. The army had so far lost two soldiers with 13 wounded.

"Enemy resistance has not been heavy. They are harassing us with small arms, mortars and machineguns," an spokesman said.

Some 50,000 residents who stayed at home or in safe places like schools and temples were under army control, he said.

The advance by tank-led troops was slowed by a maze of mines and boobytraps planted by retreating rebels, army officials said.

The bodies of 14 rebels, who usually take away their dead, were found on Saturday. The Tigers left behind 32 of their dead on Friday, the day the offensive was launched.

Residents from Jaffna reported heavy shelling and said troops advanced fromthree points into the eastern half of Jaffna while another column of troops thrust north from the Elephant Pass base at the entrance to the peninsula in a pincer move.

One axis led from the Palaly airbase through Thondamannar to the Vadamarachchi division, where Sea Tiger rebel naval wing bases are being bombed by air force Kfir jets.

The other two axes led into the Tenmaradchi division of the peninsula, through Madduvil and along the coast to Tanankilappu, near Chavakachcheri, residents said.

"The army might seal off the lagoon in a day or two," said a resident who arrived at northcentral Vavuniya. "More than 1,000 families have crossed to the mainland."

Residents earlier said the rebels had withdrawn their arms dumps and other supplies as well as boats from the area, anticipating the latest army assault.

The Tigers had left behind attack groups to harass troops, as they did after last year's offensive, they said.

Helicopter gunships and army artillery destroyed 15 rebel boats trying to cross the Jaffna lagoon, the military said.

The Tigers said on Sunday a refugee family was wiped out in a helicopter gunship attack on fleeing civilians at the lagoon boat crossing.

The Sri Lankan military, which says it takes maximum precautions to prevent civilian casualties, denied the claim, which could not be independently confirmed.

It was the rebels and not the refugees who were crossing the lagoon in boats, the spokesman said.

The LTTE said in a statement faxed to Reuters all roads leading out of the area under attack were choked with civilians fleeing the fighting.-Reuter