COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels clashed for a third straight day in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, as Britain suspended millions of dollars in aid payments to the country amid the intensified fighting.
The insurgents attacked a bunker along the defensive lines outside Vavuniya, the last government-held town before rebel territory in northern Sri Lanka, killing a police officer, military spokesman Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse said.
Separately the rebels said three combatants were killed as they beat back a military assault in Vavuniya and in Mannar also in the north.
"We have captured two dead bodies of the Sri Lankan soldiers and one of our soldiers was killed in action," rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said.
Rajapakse said he had heard no reports of those clashes.
The fighting took place a day after the military said at least 13 insurgents had been killed in two days of fierce battles along the front lines in the north - news that heightened concerns that the renewed ethnic war was entering an even bloodier phase.
Britain, which had agreed to give US$5.9 million (4.3 million) to help Sri Lanka pay down its debts to the World Bank, has suspended the program after making only half the payments, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Colombo said on customary condition of anonymity. More >>
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