The Sri Lankan military said today it killed at least 19 insurgents in a fierce battle with Tamil Tiger rebels in the east, where many fear escalating violence will lead the country back to full-scale war.

The Sri Lankan military, backed by tanks and war planes, battled Tamil Tiger rebels for over three hours today for control of territory in the east, a military spokesman said, a further escalation of violence in the country’s undeclared civil war.

Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers raided a university, seizing computers and detaining a student, in the northern Tamil heartland where the government has been battling separatist rebels, the military and a pro-rebel website said today.

Fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka has claimed the lives of at least 700 rebels and 106 soldiers in less than a week, the military said today.

The Tamil Tiger rebels ruled out peace talks as battles raged in Sri Lanka’s north and east.

Tamil Tiger rebels today said they had appealed to Norway for help in getting food and other essentials to 42,000 civilians trapped in fighting between the insurgents and Sri Lankan government forces.

FIFTEEN Tamil civilians working for a French aid agency were found slain in north-eastern Sri Lanka after fierce battles between rebels and the government over water supplies, relief agency officials said yesterday.

The Sri Lankan military said today that its forces thwarted a major Tamil Tiger rebel attack on a strategic jetty in Muttur, killing 35 insurgents, as a Norwegian peace envoy travelled to the northern rebel heartland in an effort to prevent the country from sliding back into full-blown civil war.