At least 52 people were killed in Sri Lanka on Saturday as heavy sea and land battles erupted while Tamil Tiger rebels warned that the island would plunge in a "fatal war" if the military kept up air strikes.
The military used Mi-24 helicopter gunships to defend naval patrol craft which came under attack off the north-western coast, the defence ministry said, hours after deploying supersonic jets to bomb rebel positions elsewhere.
About a dozen rebel boats engaged the Sri Lankan navy off the islet of Mannar shortly after dawn Saturday while police arrested five suspected Tamil Tiger frogmen near the capital Colombo, the ministry said.
Police chief Chandra Fernando said the frogmen were laying limpet mines, or explosive devices with magnets that attach to the hulls of vessels, along a strategic sea lane used by the navy.
The men were arrested in their diving gear after residents spotted them shortly after two mid-sea explosions. One died after committing suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule, hospital sources said.
Ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said government troops destroyed at least eight rebel craft killing 30 guerrillas.
Security forces admitted losing a total of 15 sailors on Saturday and that six civilians too were killed in the cross fire in Mannar.
However, the rebels disputed their losses and said only two of their cadres were wounded and no one was killed.
The military had sought support from helicopter gunships to help against the rebel offensive, which came after the Sri Lankan air force bombed rebel positions for a second straight day Friday.
The air strikes were in retaliation for the bombing of a civilian bus and killing of 64 passengers, including 15 children, on Thursday.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) repeated its denials and said it had asked peace broker Norway to convey a "strong warning to Colombo of possible retaliation following the provocative aerial bombing."
The LTTE's political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan denied the rebels had anything to do with the bus bombing which drew intense international condemnation.
Thamilselvan warned that the military attacks "would only lead Sri Lanka to a fatal war."
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