Sri Lanka Rebels Fight to Hold Jaffna Stronghold

Tamil guerrillas fought fiercely Thursday for their last major stronghold in Jaffna after Indian soldiers isolated groups of separatists, an Indian official said.

A spokeswoman for the Indian Embassy said the soldiers were moving slowly in some sectors of the northern city because of booby-trapped houses and mined streets.

It was the 12th day of an offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil minority’s main fighting force against the Sinhalese-dominated government. Four years of ethnic conflict have taken more than 6,000 lives on this island just south of India.

“There has been considerable headway made over gaining control of large sectors of the town,” said the spokeswoman.

A Tigers statement issued in London accused Indian troops of firing “more than 700 shells” Wednesday into the area around Jaffna Hospital and said four aircraft dropped bombs there.

The embassy spokeswoman called the report “a total lie.” She said Indian troops delivered cylinders of oxygen, generators and medical supplies to the hospital.

No verification of either side’s reports was possible. India will not let journalists into the battle area, communications with Jaffna have been cut and it takes a day or two for travelers from the city to reach working telephones.

People who left Jaffna earlier this week said the hospital was out of oxygen tanks and short of medicine.

An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Indian soldiers are in Sri Lanka to enforce a peace accord signed between the two governments in July.

India has a Tamil minority of about 60 million, nearly four times Sri Lanka’s total population of 16 million. It tried to mediate an end to the war for years while allowing Tamil militants to keep exile headquarters in Madras, capital of India’s southern Tamil Nadu state.