By IPS Correspondents
COLOMBO, Oct 29 2008 (IPS)

Aerial bombings carried out on the capital and a northern military base, late Tuesday night, have signalled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) remains a fighting force – despite being besieged in its headquarters of Kilinochchi by the Sri Lankan army.

Tamils, displaced by the fighting, are mostly hunkered down in flood-prone areas. Credit: IPS Correspondents

It was in March 2007 that the rebels first revealed the existence of an ‘air wing’ to its fighting force by carrying out a bombing raid on an oil storage site and a gas plant near Colombo.

Although the army is now within two km of Kilinochchi, its units have hesitated to make a final push into the town. Its overall thrust into LTTE-held territory appears to have got bogged down by the eastern monsoon rains.

Troops from two offensive divisions of the army are reported to have been fighting pitched battles with the LTTE cadres in an area between the reservoirs of Vannerikulam and Akkarayakulam, south west of Kilinochchi, since August.

Clashes were reported in the area continuously for over 72 hours between Oct. 18 – 22, resulting in heavy casualties. "During these clashes on the weekend [Oct.18 and 19], 33 soldiers were reported killed in action, 48 injured and three others were reported missing. Both ground and radio monitoring sources reported heavy damages to the terrorists," the Sri Lankan defence ministry said.

The editorial board of defence said this was ''in consdieration of the continuing advance of the security forces there and the need for operational security, whereby such reportage may impede the successful accomplishment of the mission''.

On its side the LTTE has also stopped releasing battlefield details and casualty figures. "While the Tigers have not been issuing battle-specific casualty details of their side on a daily basis, they were maintaining reliable periodic updates of their casualties through their Secretariat for War Heroes, which issues periodic updates," the pro-Tiger 'Tamil.net' website said on the weekend.

In leaflets distributed among civilians in Tiger-held areas, known as the Vanni, the Tigers had given Aug. 26 as the deadline for the completion of bunkers in the Vanni. And, as if on cue, fighting escalated after that date.

On Aug. 26 the Trincomalee naval base was attacked by two propeller driven aircraft. The attack did not cause much damage, but a week later, heavy clashes erupted on the Vannerikulam-Akkarayankulam axis.

On Sep.9 LTTE aircraft once again bombed a security forces base south of the Vanni while a group from the ‘Black Tiger’ suicide squad infiltrated the base and attacked government troops.

It was at that point that the government directed all U.N. and other international humanitarian agencies to relocate to Vavuniya, the closest government controlled town south of the Vanni.

The agencies relocated on Sep.16 but have since been supplying over 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Vanni (173,000 in the Mulaithivu district and 144,000 in the Kilinochchi district according to the latest maps) through weekly food convoys. The third such convoy organised by the U.N. and the government travelled to the Vanni on Oct. 24, U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, said.

"The plan is to move 750 metric tonnes of supplies for the civilians in the Vanni," Weiss said.

The government too has said that it was duty bound to keep supplies moving to civilians in the Vanni despite fears that some of it was being taken away by the Tigers.

Presidential advisor Basil Rajapakse (and brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse), who was in New Delhi over the weekend, told Indian officials that Colombo was committed to ensuring the welfare of civilians in the Vanni.

"Rajapakse briefed the Indian authorities of the efforts by the Sri Lanka government to afford relief and ensure the welfare of the civilian population in the north. He assured [the Indian side] that the safety and wellbeing of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka is being taken care of," a joint statement issued by Indian and Sri Lankan governments said.

India, Sri Lanka’s powerful neighbour to the north, has been raising concerns about the plight of civilians caught in the fighting, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

India's southern state of Tamil Nadu is already host to some 73,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and has a provincial government which is openly sympathetic to the Tamil cause.

New Delhi has offered to send 800 metric tonnes of supplies for the civilians through the Sri Lankan government.

While the monsoon rains have disrupted the army’s progress, it has also added to the miseries of the displaced persons. Weiss said that large numbers of the refugees were living in low-lying areas that are prone to floods. "We are looking at taking shelter material in the next convoy," he said.

Government agents in the Vanni said that despite the rains no floods had been recorded. "Thankfully so far now flooding has been reported in areas where the IDPs are located. But there is a very urgent need for shelter," the government agent for Kilinochchi Imelda Sukumar told IPS.

Sukumar said if the rains persisted the supply convoys would get delayed. Two weeks ago a U.N. convoy was delayed for hours after it got bogged down on the pot-holed roads.

Excerpt: