COLOMBO, Aug 17: Sri Lankan troops on Thursday beat back a fresh attempt by Tamil Tigers to overrun the main defences of the northern peninsula of Jaffna and killed about 100 guerrillas, media minister Anura Yapa said.

More than 100 rebels were wounded in the close-quarter fighting in the early hours of the morning, the minister told reporters here.

The attack on the northern peninsula, where hundreds have died in a week of fierce fighting, came hours before US envoy Steven Mann met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to demand both sides halt violence and return to negotiations.

“We believe a continuation of the fighting will only make the prospects for peace worse and will benefit neither side. The US, therefore, calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities,” the senior state department official told reporters.

Fighting also erupted in the eastern coastal town of Trincomalee, with foreign ceasefire monitors saying they were forced to retreat from heavy overnight shelling.

In Jaffna, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a seaborne attack on army bunkers at Kilali on the peninsula’s southwestern edge but troops hit back with rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said.

“The fight lasted until morning and Sri Lankan forces have been able to inflict heavy casualties on the Tigers,” said Yapa. “We have recovered 98 Tiger bodies and destroyed three LTTE boats.”

Yapa gave no soldier casualty figures. But military officials, who wished to remain unnamed, said at least six soldiers were killed and 60 wounded in the intense battle.

The defence ministry said before the latest assault that 250 rebels fighting for autonomy for the nation’s Tamil minority had been killed since the latest upsurge in violence on Friday in Jaffna.

Military sources said some 150 troops had also been killed and 300 wounded.

There was no immediate reaction from the guerrillas to the military claims but the rebels said their losses in the first two days since launching an attempt to overrun military positions totalled only 22 dead.

Both sides are regularly accused of exaggerating the losses of their opponents.

The Jaffna peninsula is cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by Tiger-held territory.

The military is forced to re-supply its troops in the northern tip of the island by air and by sea from the port of Trincomalee, which was itself the scene of overnight fighting.—AFP