Over 220 killed in deadly Lanka clashes, official killed

COLOMBO: Over 200 Tamil tiger rebels and 27 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed on Saturday in the heaviest fighting since the 2002 truce in the island's embattled northeast, even as an official involved in the peace process was shot dead in the capital.

Fierce battles broke out in the Jaffna peninsula in the north and at Batticaloa in the east, while the north-eastern port of Trincomalee saw heavy shelling.

Military said it killed over 200 rebels in fighting that went late into the night while losing 27 of its troops.

Thousands of civilians were forced to flee the areas in the northeast, threatening a major humanitarian crisis.

Deputy Secretary General of the government's Peace Secratariat Ketheesh Loganathan was gunned down by unidentified assailants at his home in Colombo's Dehiwala suburb, police said. The Peace Secretariat co-ordinates the Norwegian-brokered peace process between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Both the LTTE and Sri Lankan forces claimed they had taken or recaptured territory after heavy artillery exchanges. Some of the worst fighting was reported in Jaffna, where thousands of government soldiers are stationed on the isolated peninsula, cut off by rebel territory and accessible only by sea.

"The LTTE is definitely pushing the country to war," defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told a news conference.

The military reported rebel shelling of positions in the north-eastern port of Trincomalee.

Sri Lanka's air force also bombed rebel positions near the eastern coastal town of Batticaloa.