Tamils Destroy Sri Lanka Army Base; 20 Killed

Tamil separatist guerrillas blew up a Sri Lankan army camp on the Jaffna peninsula Monday and killed at least 20 soldiers, the government reported. Rebels based in India claimed that more than 100 died.

Local journalists and military officials said 27 soldiers were killed.

Conflicting reports on the number killed could not be independently verified. Both rebel and security forces are known to exaggerate or minimize casualty claims for propaganda purposes.

The government Media Center said 20 soldiers were killed and at least 12 injured when rebels attacked an army base at Neliaddy Central College. The center said seven bodies were found and 13 were buried under rubble of a destroyed building.

At Madras, in southern India, rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam claimed Monday night that their guerrillas had killed more than 100 soldiers and that another 70 were trapped during a six-hour assault on their camp.

Headquarters in India

The Tigers form the largest Tamil militia. Various Tamil rebel groups have headquarters in southern India, which lies close to Sri Lanka and is home to about 50 million Tamils.

Tamil extremists are fighting for an independent nation in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces. They claim the majority Sinhalese Buddhists discriminate against the Tamils, who are mostly Hindus and who make up 18% of Sri Lanka’s 16 million people. The Sinhalese control the government and army.

Fierce fighting was reported throughout the day in the Vadamarachchi region, where the army camp is located. It was the worst fighting since May in the South Asian island nation’s 4-year-old Tamil civil war.

The rebels earlier reported 30 soldiers were killed, but Tiger spokesman Anton S. Balasingham later issued a statement with the higher toll. The United News of India also quoted Indian-exiled rebels as claiming that more than 100 soldiers were killed.

Balasingham said the camp was littered with the bodies of soldiers. He said the rebels lost three men. Intelligence sources cited intercepted rebel radio messages as saying 10 Tamil fighters had been killed.

Demolished Building

The spokesman said the guerrillas destroyed defense bunkers at the army base and brought down a three-story building with high explosives, mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns.

Balasingham said the guerrillas blocked army efforts to recapture the camp and rescue soldiers trapped there.

The Vadamarachchi region covers about one-quarter of the Jaffna peninsula. It was seized in an offensive ending June 1 that was the army’s most successful action in the civil war.

The civil war has killed more than 6,000 people since July, 1983.

A Tiger statement said more than 1,000 people staged a hunger strike Sunday in the Mullaittivu district south of the peninsula to urge the Indian government to recognize the Tigers and the Tamil freedom struggle.