The Sri Lankan government said Monday that its combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels have reached their conclusion and the security forces will end the use of heavy caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian causalities.

The Sri Lankan government said Monday that its combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels have reached their conclusion and the security forces will end the use of heavy caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian causalities.(Xinhua/AFP File Photo)

The statement came a day after the government rejected a unilateral ceasefire announcement of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The LTTE said on Sunday that it has announced a unilateral ceasefire in the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the international community, but the offer was quickly rejected by the government.

Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse said the offer “is a joke” as the LTTE “were not fighting with us, they were running from us.”

He said there is no need of a ceasefire and the LTTE must surrender.

A pro-LTTE website reported on Monday that two Sri Lanka Air Force fighter bombers bombed civilian targets in the northern no fire zone (NFZ) after the government’s announcement that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks against the rebel targets.

The LTTE’s Director of Peace Secretariat, S. Puleedevan was quoted by the TamilNet as saying that the bombers attacked civilian targets at 12:50 p.m. (0720 GMT) and again at 1:10 p.m. (0740 GMT) shortly after the announcement.

Puleedevan blamed the Sri Lankan government for “attempting to deceive the international community, including the people of (India’s) Tamil Nadu state” with the announcement.

Puleedevan said the Army were also continuing to fire shells into the NFZ.

He said the government troops launched a ground offensive around 3:30 a.m. (2200 GMT) Monday aiming to enter the remaining 8-sq-km of the NFZ.

The 20-sq-km NFZ was declared by the government in January to shelter large number of civilians trapped in fierce fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Mullaittivu district.

More than 100,000 civilians have fled the NFZ to government-controlled areas since last Monday when the government troops broke into the NFZ, saying the LTTE were holding civilians hostage in the NFZ.

International aid agencies said large number of civilians were killed or injured in the process and the government is calling on aids to cope with the massive exodus of civilians.

Both the government and the LTTE are facing amounting international pressure to cease hostilities to save the lives of civilians still being trapped in the NFZ.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes is currently on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka to assess the humanitarian situation in the north.

Holmes will raise “extreme concerns” about civilian casualties from the fighting and the need to get the tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the conflict zone out of harm’s way without further loss of life, UN officials said.

Holmes has called on the LTTE to let out the remaining civilian population and lay down their arms, and on the government to exercise maximum restraint including no use of heavy weapons.

The government said it is on the verge of totally crushing the LTTE as almost all of the 15,000-sq-km territory held by the LTTE has been captured by the government in a military offensive launched in 2006.

Claiming discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese-dominated governments, the LTTE began to fight for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since the mid-1980s, resulting in the killing of more than 70,000 people.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet