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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rapa" data-source="post: 548458" data-attributes="member: 212"><img src="http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/images/May2007/12autoar.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers search a vehicle in Colombo following a Tiger attack in the north of the island, a day earlier. (AFP)A Tamil Tiger assault on a strategic naval base in northern Sri Lanka was part of an attempt to re-capture their former bastion on the Jaffna peninsula, a state-run daily reported.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday briefly held a naval facility on Delft islet, southwest of Jaffna, and claimed to have killed 35 sailors while only losing four of their own. The military disputed the figures.“The incident in Delft in the wee hours of yesterday clearly indicates that the LTTE has not given up their idea of capturing Jaffna, which is considered the nerve centre of their activities,” the Daily News said.The Tigers ran Jaffna as a de facto separate state for five years before security forces drove them out in December 1995.Numerous small islands around Jaffna are seen as potential launching pads for any rebel offensive against the Tamil-majority peninsula.In its “Defence Column,” which reflects government thinking, the newspaper noted that Thursday’s attack on Delft — as well as the bombing of a military bus in the capital Colombo — had ended a month-long lull in rebel attacks.“The events unfolded yesterday as security forces and also the public were on alert about a pending air attack by the LTTE targeting a security or economic nerve centre on Colombo or the north or east,” the daily said.At least one soldier was killed and six others wounded in the bus bombing.The escalation in violence came after the Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate state since 1972, vowed on Sunday they would never return to peace talks unless the government halted a military campaign against them.The LTTE has been conceding territory in the east of the island in recent months, but in March they raised the level of the conflict by using light aircraft on bombing missions for the first time.The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday it had pulled its staff away from northern frontlines dividing government and rebel forces as fighting intensified.Nearly 5,000 people have died in the past 18 months, according to the military.The 35-year-long separatist conflict has claimed 60,000 lives.Tit-for-tat attacks have left the truce in tatters, and both sides appear convinced there is a military solution to the conflict.</blockquote>

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