Sri Lankan Cease-Fire Falls Apart

A cease-fire collapsed into virtual civil war in Sri Lanka today, with the military accusing Tamil guerrillas of mortar attacks on army bases and the rebels saying the air force was strafing villages.

“There is no question of a cease-fire now. The (Tamil) Tigers have broken it and we are going ahead trying to recapture our installations, defending our positions,” a military officer said.

The fresh outburst of fighting threatened to plunge the Indian Ocean island back into full-scale civil war.

“Sri Lankan security forces began large-scale, warlike troop movements and strengthened their positions in violation of the terms of the cease-fire which came into effect at 6 p.m. on Saturday,” the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said in a statement.

They accused troops of setting fire to houses and said the air force had bombed and strafed various parts of the northeast. At least seven civilians were killed in the attacks, they said.

After a brief lull in hostilities after Saturday’s cease-fire, heavy fighting erupted between the Tigers and government troops in several parts of the northeast province late Sunday.

More than 450 people, including rebels, security forces and civilians, have died since June 11 when the Tigers launched a spate of attacks on army and police bases in the north and east.

Some of the fiercest battles broke out around an army camp in Kiran in eastern Trincomalee district.

The military accused the rebels of pounding the camp with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and of using an unidentified gas in the onslaught.