Over 80 killed in separatist fighting in Sri Lanka
04/06/2007 17:50 NEW DELHI, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - At least 82 people died in a new upsurge of separatist violence Monday in the north of Sri Lanka, Indian UNI news agency said.
The agency quotes both sides claiming that 30 Sri Lankan soldiers and 52 Tamil Tigers separatists had been killed after a day of fighting to the north of the town of Vavuniya in the breakaway Tamil Eelam region.
This is the latest violation in a ceasefire deal struck in 2002 and first broken 18 months ago between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an armed group that has been fighting for an ethnic Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka since 1983.
General Sarath Fonseca, a Sri Lankan army commander, said the ceasefire had failed, "Now that full-scale fighting is going on, the ceasefire is off the table."
Fonseca said he was sure the separatists were "prepared to go to any lengths" to secure Jaffna, the largest city in the north of the country, but warned that the outcome of such an offensive would "be catastrophic for them."
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