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Lankan forces move to capture key road link
| COLOMBO. Sri Lanka. May | 13: The military met with stiff i resistance from Tamil Tiger I rebels as it launched an offen-
sive Tuesday to capture a vital I road link in northern Sri
Lanka, military officials said. I reports AP.
First reports said at least one soldier was killed. The rebels rained mortar and heavy machine gunfire on three ad-
I vanclng columns of troops 1 which set out from three front line villages, officials said.
Covered by war planes, helicopter gun ships and artillery fire, the soldiers began the onslaught about 210 kilometres (130 miles) north of Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
The offensive was aimed at recapturing a road linking the town of Vavuniya to Kilinochchi — and 88-kilome-tre (55 miles) stretch of shell-scarred highway that slices through thick jungles.
The road would give the government land access to the Jaffna Peninsula, which can now be reached only by air or sea which has hampered plans to rebuild the region destroyed during the 13-year-old civil war.
Local newspapers quoted military intelligence reports as saying that the rebels had moved in large numbers from eastern Sri Lanka to the north
to dig bunkers and trenches along the highway, fearing a military offensive.
The last major battle with the rebels was last February when government troops retook the road to the isolated coastal town of Mannar town from Vavuniya after a 16-day fight.
Before moving into rebel territory, the army opened a continuous barrage of artillery fire as it moved up heavy armoured vehicles in preparation for the advance, aid workers confirmed.
"We were awakened to the deafening sounds in the morning (Tuesday). The offensive seems to have begun in a big way", said Sivanadnan Kishore.
a Sri Lanka Red Cross official in Vavuniya.
After the fall of their stronghold. Jaffna City, in December 1995, the rebels moved their headquarters to Kilinochchi. The troops by mid-1996 captured most parts of Jaffna Peninsula and later in September took control of Kilinochchi. driving the rebels into the Jungles.
The rebels are fighting for a homeland for minority Tamils, who account for 18 per cent of Sri Lanka's 18 million people. They claim discrimination by the Sinhalese, who control the government and military. The war has killed more than 48,000 people.