Violence Continues in Sri Lanka

(25 Mar 08 - RV) Sri Lanka's navy battled a Tamil Tiger insurgent fleet early today as troops killed 13 separatist fighters and air force planes bombed a rebel supply dump. The fresh clashes come following scattered battles across northern Sri Lanka that killed 30 rebel fighters and four soldiers on the weekend. The Tamil Tigers have for been fighting for a separate homeland for the last 25 years, however fighting between the two sides has escalated since the government pulled out of a long-ignored cease-fire with the rebels in January. The government seized the rebel-held east earlier in the year. Jehan Perera of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo says that to better understand the war zone, it is important to analyze the country’s East and North separately...