February 25, 2007	Sunday	Safar 7, 1428

COLOMBO, Feb 24: Truce monitors overseeing Sri Lanka’s bloodied ceasefire has pulled out of the volatile northern region, the spokesperson for the group said on Saturday.

The pullout comes as the government military launched fresh offensives in the LTTE-controlled areas in the eastern region, which has raised fears that the army would soon strike LTTE targets in the north.

Spokesperson Thorfinnur Omarsson said the team of local members of the monitoring mission based in northern Vavuniya had moved out of the area on Thursday as the country completed five years of the ceasefire amidst widespread speculation that the truce would be abrogated either formally or by fresh massive fighting.

“There are no foreign ceasefire observers in the area at present and the local monitors have left citing security concerns”, Omarsson said.

Although the government peace secretariat claimed on Friday that the ceasefire signed on Feb 22 was still intact, the Tamil Tiger rebels in a statement posted on the pro-rebel website Tamil Net warned they would continue their struggle for a separate Tamil state.

Meanwhile, in the wake of declarations by government spokesperson for defence affairs Keheliye Rambukwella on Saturday that the government would retaliate to LTTE attacks, the military said it had captured three Tamil Tiger rebel bases in the northeast.

“The operations were carried out by the army in response to attacks by the guerillas. They (the LTTE) targeted our camps on Saturday morning and the army used artillery and mortar fire to neutralise the enemy and capture three important rebel camps”, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

The Tamil Tiger rebels in a statement on the pro-LTTE website Tamil Net said areas of the Front Defence Lines of northern Muhamalai were attacked with heavy artillery by troops.