Senior Sri Lankan rebel says truce void, war back on
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, July 31, IRNA
Sri Lanka-LTTE-Truce
Sri Lanka's four-year ceasefire is now void and the island's two-decade civil war is back on, a top Tamil Tiger rebel said as the guerrillas and the military entered a sixth straight day of fighting.
S Elilan, head of the Tigers' political wing in the restive eastern district of Trincomalee, said army troops had resumed a bid to advance towards land they control in the east and had fired artillery shells at their territory in the north, Doordarshan News reported here.
"The ceasefire agreement has become null and void at the moment", Elilan said by telephone from Trincomalee, adding government troops were continuing an advance towards their forward defence line in the east in a water supply dispute.
"The war is on and we are ready", added Elilan.
Elilan is not the Tigers' main spokesman but he is one of the their top officials and their political head in Trincomalee.
Sri Lanka's Air Force has killed 40 rebels in five days of aerial bombing raids in the east and injured several others.
The army says it has sustained no casualties -- despite becoming bogged down in a minefield as they tried to reach a sluice they accuse the Tigers of blocking to choke water supplies to Sinhalese farmers in government territory.
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