Sri Lanka Soldiers Seize Rebel-Held Area, 47 Killed
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan soldiers pushed across the front lines and captured rebel-held territory as heavy artillery and mortar battles across the north left 47 people dead, the military said yesterday. Fighting has escalated around the Tamil Tigers rebels’ de facto state in the north since the government last week officially pulled out of a cease-fire.
Police commandos, meanwhile, shot and killed the top rebel leader in eastern Sri Lanka, a military spokesman, Brigadier General Udaya Nanayakkara, said. He said the rebel leader, identified as Shankar, had been hiding among civilians in the east.
