Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels broke through military defences in the island's far north and overran army bunkers on Saturday, truce monitors said, as the fiercest fighting since a 2002 truce spread.
The Tigers and army exchanged intense artillery fire and government jets bombed near the rebels' forward defence lines in the northern Jaffna peninsula, residents said, as thousands of civilians fled to churches.
The military said 27 of its personnel were killed and 80 wounded, and estimated it had killed more than 150 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. It said it sank five Sea Tiger boats as they attacked army posts on the shore in Jaffna.
The unarmed Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said the Tigers had overrun five bunkers inside army lines, and had landed troops on an island west of Jaffna and engaged the navy. About 40,000 troops are stationed in Jaffna, which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel territory.
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