Nine die in fighting as Tigers split

Tamil Tiger guerrillas advanced on a heavily armed breakaway faction today in a vicious gun and mortar battle that killed at least nine people, wounded 20 and imperilled Sri Lanka’s fragile two-year-old cease-fire.

It was the worst armed clash since the 2002 truce halted a longrunning civil war and came just a week after voters replaced a government that had negotiated the end to fighting with a parliamentary alliance that backs the country’s hardline president.