Sri Lanka’s navy and ethnic Tamil rebels engaged in a high-sea gun battle that lasted until dawn today, the military said, claiming to have sunk 12 rebel boats, including five suicide craft, and killing about 80 rebels.

Sri Lanka’s armed forces and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery fire overnight, as the military advanced on a strategic Tiger-held enclave in the northeast in an assault that has killed at least 79 people, the military said today.

FIGHTING between Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces has forced at least 204,000 people from their homes in the eastern and northern parts of the country, the UN food agency warned yesterday.

INTERNATIONAL truce monitors have warned it is likely hundreds of civilians have been killed so far this month in Sri Lanka’s worst violence since a 2002 ceasefire.

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.

An international aid group said today it found the bodies of two more of its workers after discovering 15 others killed last week in Sri Lanka’s northeast, as a car bomb explosion outside a girls’ school left at least two people dead.

SRI LANKA’S Tamil Tiger rebels yesterday agreed to lift a two-week-old water blockade on government-held villages that has provoked some of the fiercest fighting in years.

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.

Thousands of civilians have been trapped by fighting in Sri Lanka’s northeast, and the most desperate among them have started walking through the forests to escape the battles, a Red Cross official said today.

Dozens of Tamil Tiger rebels infiltrated a small, government-held town during fierce fighting in northeastern Sri Lanka, and soldiers were trying to flush them out, a government spokesman said today.

SRI LANKAN forces yesterday launched a new air and ground offensive to wrest a key reservoir from Tamil rebels who have cut off water to 60,000 villagers, while the rebels claimed to have sunk a navy warship.

Heavy fighting broke out in northeastern Sri Lanka today between Tamil rebels and government troops seeking to end a rebel blockade of a reservoir, and at least five soldiers were killed, officials said.

Sri Lanka’s government said today it has no plans to withdraw from its ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels despite a regional Tiger leader declaring the accord dead because of air and artillery assaults on rebel territory.

Sri Lankan air force jets and artillery pounded Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country’s north and east for a second day today, peace monitors said ahead of a mass funeral for 64 people killed a bus bombing blamed on the insurgents.

A powerful land mine ripped through a bus packed with commuters and schoolchildren in northern Sri Lanka today, killing at least 62 people.

Tamil Tiger rebels have shelled Sri Lanka army positions and launched a deadly raid on a breakaway faction they say is backed by the Sri Lankan government, while a Tamil civilian was shot dead, officials said, heightening fears of a return to civil war.

Sri Lanka reopened roads linking government and Tamil Tiger rebel-held territory today after two days of airstrikes against guerrilla areas ended, but the threat of a return to civil war remained amid continuing bloodshed.

Sri Lanka’s military launched airstrikes on Tamil rebel bases today after navy craft came under attack, and a pro-rebel web site reported at least 12 people killed as the country appeared on the brink of returning to civil war.

A FEMALE suicide bomber disguised to look pregnant blew herself up in front of a car carrying Sri Lanka’s highest-ranking general yesterday, killing eight people and badly wounding the top officer. Twenty-six others also were injured.

A FEMALE suicide bomber disguised to look pregnant blew herself up in front of a car carrying Sri Lanka’s highest-ranking general yesterday, killing eight people and badly wounding the top officer.

A Norwegian peace envoy was to visit Sri Lanka today amid efforts to encourage the Tamil Tiger rebels to attend peace talks with the Sri Lankan government in Geneva next week.

The death toll from two explosions and subsequent street violence in a restive north-east Sri Lankan town today rose to 16, the military said.

Angry mobs set fire to shops following two explosions today in a restive north-east Sri Lankan town, with 11 people reported killed.

Two Britons were wounded, one critically, when a land mine blast killed 12 Sri Lankan sailors today.

At least 12 Sri Lankan navy sailors were killed and eight wounded when their bus was hit by a mine blast in north-eastern Sri Lanka today.

Sri Lanka’s president today asked Norway’s peace envoy to set up new talks with Tamil rebels in hopes of staving off a civil war, but the separatists continued to brace for a possible return to battle

Sri Lanka’s president and a top Norwegian peace envoy are meeting today in a desperate attempt to prevent the nation’s slide back into civil war as separatist rebels prepared for a possible return to the battlefield.

The Tamil Tiger rebels accused the Sri Lankan navy today of barring Tamil fishermen from going to the sea, a day after suspected insurgents rammed a fishing boat packed with explosives into a navy vessel, killing 13 sailors.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels rammed an explosives-laden fishing boat into a Sri Lankan navy vessel off the north-western coast early today, killing at least 15 sailors and leaving three missing, officials said.

Sri Lankan security forces went on red alert today, military officials said, securing a supply corridor into the restive east following a surge in attacks blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels that have endangered the country’s shaky cease-fire.

Tamil Tigers today said they were losing patience with the Sri Lanka government and could be forced to resume their bloody civil war following the killing of two of the rebel group’s senior members in an attack they blame on military intelligence agents.

The UN children’s agency said today that Tamil Tiger rebels have recruited 40 children since the tsunami orphaned hundreds a month ago.

Stunned by the devastation wrought by the Asian tsunami, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan toured a Sri Lankan town today where hundreds of shoppers at an outdoor weekly market were swept to their deaths.

ONE of the largest earthquakes yet to strike the planet sent huge tidal waves tearing into countries across Asia.

AID agencies were yesterday racing to provide food and shelter for millions of people made homeless by the tidal waves across Asia.

Massive waves triggered by earthquakes crashed into villages along a wide stretch of Sri Lankan coast today, killing more than 2,100 people and displacing a million others, the prime minister’s office said.

More than 2,000 of people have been killed today as one of the most-powerful earthquakes in years triggered massive tidal waves slammed into coastlines across Asia.

Police lifted a curfew in eastern Sri Lanka today amid beefed-up security, after violence killed at least two people and strained the fragile cease-fire that has halted the country’s brutal two-decade civil war.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a passenger bus and clashed with security forces and civilians in the port town of Trincomalee today, leaving one person dead and three injured.

Tamil Tiger rebels freed two Sri Lankan government security guards held hostage for more than two months today.

A powerful Tamil rebel land mine blew up a bus carrying soldiers on home leave in northeastern Sri Lanka today, killing 17 and wounding 19.