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17 Tamil Tigers killed in fresh fighting

Lanka tightens use of mobile to fight terrorism

AFP, AP, Colombo
Sri Lanka yesterday tightened mobile phone regulations and forced service providers to maintain full details of phone users as part of anti-terrorism moves.
Phone operators were told to check the identity of subscribers before signing them up, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission chief Priyantha Kariyapperuma said.
New and current subscribers also need to keep a certified copy of the letter issued by the operator for inspection by police and military, in order to prove die ownership of the phone connection, he said.
"The rules were brought in on
the request of the defence ministry, because mobile phones are misused for terrorist activities. The government is finding it difficult to trace the real owners," he told AFP.
Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who are fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community, are known to use several mobile phone connections under different names to evade detection.
Mobile telephones have also been used to remotely detonate bombs.
Kariyapperuma announced the new rules would go into effect "immediately" but said existing users would be given "some reasonable time" to get their paper-
work sorted out.
Sri Lanka, which has a population of 20 million people, has 12 million telephone subscribers, of which 10 million are mobile phones, Kariyapperuma said.
Meanwhile, scattered fighting across Sri Lanka's embattled north and an attack on a passenger bus in the south killed 17 Tamil Tiger rebels and four civilians, the military said Saturday.
Suspected rebel gunmen fired at a passenger bus in southern Sri Lanka, killing a 9-year-old boy and three women, the military said in a statement. Meanwhile, clashes broke out in the Mannar, Vavuniya and Welloya regions surrounding the rebel stronghold killed 17 rebels, the statement said. It said no soldiers were killed but some were wounded.
Military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be immediately reached for comment and it was not possible to verify the military's claims because reporters are barred from the war zone. Each side is known to exaggerate the damages inflicted upon the other and underreport their own.
On Friday a group of gunmen hiding by the side of the road near the southern village of Buttala raked the passing civilian bus with gunfire, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. The bus driver sped through the ambush, only stopping w+ien he reached safety, Nanayakkara said.
He blamed die rebels for the attack which he said killed a boy and three women and wounded 25 others. The rebels did not comment on the attack.
The Tamil Tigers have been blamed for scores of suicide bombings and oilier attacks on civilians and are listed as a terror group by the United States, European Union and India.
The rebels were blamed for a strike in Buttala on Jan. 16 in which assailants bombed a bus, gunned down the fleeing passengers and attacked nearby farmers as they retreated into the forest, killing 32 people.