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Security forces capture key rebel camp in Sri Lanka 's volatile east, military says
Associated Press,
Mon January 8, 2007 08:16 EST .
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Sri Lanka's elite police force on Monday seized a key Tamil Tiger rebel base in the country's east, a region where a clash with separatists the previous day left at least one soldier dead, the military said.
Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe told reporters that the rebels' ``Stanley Base'' in eastern Ampara district fell to Special Task Force personnel, who also recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition.
Special Task Force chief Nimal Lewke said that four of his personnel were wounded in the fighting and a search was being conducted to flush out rebel fighters who he said had escaped into the jungles.
Eastern Sri Lanka has become a hotbed of violence between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been fighting for over 20 years for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.1 million ethnic Tamil minority who have suffered decades of discrimination by the majority-Sinhalese.
Lewke said the vast base was used by the guerrillas to launch attacks on government forces in the region, as a training camp for new Tiger recruits and also included a hospital.
The weapons left behind by the rebels included four mortar launchers, he said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan confirmed a battle in the area but denied that their base had fallen.
``They (STF) have been trying to infiltrate our area and there was also a confrontation. But I deny that the camp has been captured,'' he said by telephone from the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.
In the nearby Batticaloa district, a clash between security forces and rebels late Sunday killed one soldier and left another wounded, Samarasinghe said. He had no details about rebel casualties, and the Tigers were not immediately available for comment.
The two sides routinely inflate each other's casualty counts and independent verification was not possible.
Separately, the Defense Ministry said rebels infiltrated an electrical facility early Monday on the outskirts of Colombo and blew up a transformer, disrupting electricity to some areas.
``They (rebels) cut the wire mesh and may have used at least 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosive to blow up the transformer,'' Maj. Upali Rajapakse said.
``The security forces believe that the Tiger terrorists are attempting to disrupt normalcy in non-operational areas,'' Rajapakse said.
Rebel spokesman, Ilanthirayan, denied involvement.
The Elakanda power station is about 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) north of Colombo.
Also on Monday in northern Jaffna peninsula, masked men stopped a state-owned bus transporting school children, then forced the students off before setting it on fire, a bus employee said.
The group, shouting anti-government slogans, claimed that a pro-government Tamil party was abducting students in Jaffna, employee N. Rasadurai said.
The military said that some students themselves were involved in the arson attack, which was instigated by the rebels.
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Published: Mon Jan 8 09:16:09 EST 2007
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