Eight killed in Tamil Tiger infighting

Heavy mortar shelling and gunfire erupted today between two Tamil Tiger rebel factions, killing at least eight guerrillas and wounding five, in Sri Lanka’s first battle since a 2002 cease-fire halted its civil war.

Rebels from the main Tamil Tiger rebel group based in the north seized territory held by a breakaway eastern faction at the Verugal River in eastern Sri Lanka, where the two sides have squared off since their split early last month.

Several groups of heavily armed northern rebels also landed in boats at Kathiruvelli, a coastal village about nine miles from the river, and were trying to advance on Batticaloa – the breakaway group’s stronghold, military officials said.

To enter that area they would have to cross Sri Lankan government-held territory, possibly drawing the military into the fray.

It was the first battle between Tamils and the country’s first major fighting since a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in February 2002 halted a civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and Tamil rebels, who launched a violent campaign for a separate homeland in 1983.

Government security forces were placed on red alert, and several army platoons in bordering areas also were put on standby.

The TamilNet Web site, which supports the main rebel group, said more than 300 breakaway guerrillas had surrendered on the southern side of the river. It also claimed that infantry formations from the main rebel group had seized the Kathiruvelli area.

A total of eight people from both sides were killed in the fighting and five others were being treated in hospitals, it said.