COLOMBO: Fifteen persons were killed on Monday in fresh violence in Sri Lanka’s north as heavy fighting erupted in the area. Ten Tamil Tiger rebels, three village home-guards and two civilians died in three separate incidents, military officials and area sources said. The two civilians, a Tamil woman and youth, were killed in two separate shootouts by unidentified gunmen in the northern Jaffna region, sources said.

The LTTE cadres were killed when fighting erupted in northern Vavuniya, said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.

The Tiger guerrillas did not formally comment on the fighting taking place a day after Sri Lanka’s military top brass visited the northern Jaffna peninsula to assess the security situation there.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Chief Defence Staff Donald Perera and Army Commander Sarath Fonseka visited Jaffna on Saturday.