Nine combatants killed in Sri Lanka's latest fighting, says military

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a troop of Sri Lankan soldiers that had crossed into insurgent territory, sparking a battle that the military said Monday left seven guerrillas and a soldier dead.

The fighting took place Sunday and was the latest in a series of clashes that have killed dozens in Mannar, a northwestern district that has in recent weeks becomes a flash point in Sri Lanka's deepening conflict.

The military said Sunday's violence broke out when soldiers pushed ahead of their defensive lines to pre-empt an attack by insurgents. The seven rebels and one soldier were killed in the ensuing fight, said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.

There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, who routinely dispute military accounts of battles.

Separately on Monday, the military said soldiers shot dead a suspected rebel who attempted to throw a bomb at a patrol.




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The incident occurred in the Jaffna peninsula, which lies at the northern tip of Sri Lanka and is the heartland of the island nation's 3.1 million ethnic minority Tamils, in whose name the Tigers are fighting for an independent homeland.

Tamils have faced decades of discrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese, the predominantly Buddhist ethnic group that accounts for more than 70 percent of the country's 20 million people and dominates its government and military.

A 2002 cease-fire brought a measure of relief, but has largely collapsed in the last 19 months, leaving an estimated 4,000 more people dead, despite international pressure for calm.

Meanwhile, authorities were trying to establish a motive for Sunday's killing of a Buddhist monk in eastern Sri Lanka, the ministry said.

Unidentified gunmen stormed a Buddhist temple in eastern Trincomalee district, which lies near Tamil Tiger territory, and fatally shot the chief monk, Rev. Handungamuwe Nandarathana.

More than 69,000 people have been killed since Sri Lanka's war began in 1983.