Sri Lankan troops claimed today to have captured four Tamil Tiger bases and inflicted heavy casualties in the restive northeast before dawn.
Ground troops backed by artillery and rocket launchers advanced overnight on rebel-held territory in the district of Trincomalee, and around 150 Tiger fighters withdrew, a military spokesman said.
Tamil Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said it had long since abandoned jungle camps in the area, accusing the military of propaganda and warning the government would get a full-scale return to war if they push for it.
"We have been operating in that area for more than 24 years. In Trincomalee jungles there are hundreds and hundreds of old camps. They are old, abandoned bases," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the rebels' northern stronghold.
"[The Sri Lankan army] are not conquering it, they are just walking in it," he added, saying he had no reports of casualties.
"Now the Sri Lankan government is asking for a full-scale war... If they are asking for war, they are going to have it everywhere in this island."
He declined to answer if that meant the Sri Lankan capital Colombo should brace for attacks, instead accusing the international community of being "deafeningly silent" over the government offensive, which violates the terms of a 2002 ceasefire pact.
The offensive comes a day after thousands of civilians fled Tiger-held territory further south in the district of Batticaloa, which troops are also trying to clear, as the foes battled with artillery and mortar bombs.
It also comes after months of deadly land and sea battles, ambushes and suicide attacks, violence that has killed about 4,000 people in the past 15 months and around 68,000 people since the two-decade civil war began in 1983.
The military has already captured a large coastal swathe of territory in recent months that the Tigers held under the terms of the battered truce, forcing the rebels to flee to areas of jungle further inland or to their northern base by sea.
President Mahinda Rajapakse's government has vowed to unveil a power-sharing proposal within weeks, but rejects Tiger demands for a separate homeland.