Rebels say military attack has killed 16 civilians (9:39 a.m.)
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Tamil separatist rebels have said 16 Sri Lankan civilians were killed in a roadside bomb attack carried out by government forces in the country’s war-torn north.
The bombing occurred Friday in the Tamil Tiger rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi and the victims included children, the guerrillas said in an e-mailed statement. They said elite government forces planted the bomb.
The military denied involvement in the attack.
“We don’t operate in that area,” military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The rebels said the bomb hit a van carrying 19 members of an extended family, killing 16. The other three passengers were injured and admitted to the Kilinochchi hospital, the statement said.
The rebels said a government airstrike elsewhere in Kilinochchi killed an infant and a teenage girl on Friday.
Air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said fighter jets had bombed a rebel gathering area and a beach where the rebels had concealed their boats, but denied any airstrikes had targeted civilian areas.
Friday’s violence took place as the guerrillas mourned the death of a senior rebel leader who died of a heart attack Tuesday. Balasegaram Kandiah - known by his nom de guerre, Brig. Balraj - reportedly led a number of battles against government forces during a quarter-century of civil war on the South Asian island.
Meanwhile, the military said gunbattles across the island’s restive north on Thursday killed 22 rebels and two soldiers.
The battles erupted in the Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Welioya areas bordering rebel-held territory, Nanayakkara said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment on those battles.
It was not possible to independently verify the military’s claims because media are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place. Each side commonly exaggerates the other’s casualties while playing down its own.
Fighting has escalated in recent months along the front lines separating government-controlled territory and the Tamil Tiger rebels’ de facto state in the north.
The government has pledged to capture the rebel-held territory and crush the insurgents by the end of the year. Diplomats and other observers say, however, that the army has faced more resistance than expected.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for minority ethnic Tamils, who have been marginalized for decades by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting. (AP)
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