Sri Lanka says LTTE have Offered to Talk; Heavy Fighting Reported in Jaffna

Fierce Fighting in Jaffna, LTTE looks for Air, Sea Blockade

13 August 2006 (New Delhi)

Even as Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tiger Rebels are engaged in heavy shelling on each others positions in South Jaffna (North Sri Lanka), the head of the government's Peace Secretariet PalithaKohona has told journalists in Colombo that he has received an offer to restart talks from the LTTE through the truce monitors.

He said the offer was communicated to him last Friday, the day fighting broke out in the Jaffna peninsula for the first time since the signing of the Norway brokered ceasefire in 2002.

"“I was told by Ulf Henricsson, head of the SLMM, that Puleedevan wanted talks immediately and I said, of course,” he told the Sunday Island Newspaper

S Puleedevan is a part of the rebel's peace secretariet based in Killinochi.

Kohona said he accepted the offer for talks, but has not heard back from the SLMM since.

The LTTE has not confirmed or denied having made an offer for talks so far.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued in the Jaffna peninsula, with artillery and mortar exchanges.

Details are hard to come by as telephone links to the northern peninsula are tenuous.

It is reported that the LTTE has stepped up shelling towards the main Pallai air base of the Sri Lankan Air Force in Jaffna. Rebel sources say operations on the base have been disrupted because of constant shelling by rebels. It is however, not clear if the runway at the base is operational.

The Tamil majority Jaffna Peninsula is under Sri Lankan army control. There are about 40,000 troops stationed there.

Supplies for the troops based in Jaffna are routed through the Kankesanturai Port and the Pallai Airbase as the stratigic A9 road connecting the peninsula passes through rebel territory.

The rebels have reportedly stepped up their shelling targetting the Sri Lanka Navy base at Trincomalee in the east. Military supplies through the sea are sent to the Kankesanthurai harbour in Jaffna from this Naval base.

The rebel strategy seems to be to effect a sea and air blockade of Jaffna. Fierce fighting is reported around the Forward Defence Line, FDL in Muhamalai, with both sides claiming significant successes. The Sri Lankan airforce is also reported to be continuing its offensive against rebel positions in the East and North.

" The army has the situation well under control, we have pushed the terrorists well behind the FDL" a military spokesman told this writer from Colombo.