Rebel leader killed in northern Sri Lanka

    COLOMBO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan Army said a regional leader of Tamil Tiger rebels was killed in a battle in the northern Jaffna peninsula Sunday afternoon.

    Army troops exchanged fire with a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in Kaithady area of Jaffna around 4:30 p.m. (1100 GMT), killing two rebels including a regional leader named Chengan, said Army officials.

    The Army also said two LTTE rebels were killed in the northern Mannar district and another two were killed in the northern Vavuniya district, both on Sunday morning.

    Some 44 civilians were killed by the rebels in a series of attacks in southeast of the country since the government officially abandoned the six year old Norwegian backed ceasefire on Jan. 16.

    The Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and senior government leaders have predicted that the rebel military campaign would be crushed by the end of 2008.

    The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which has been monitoring the truce since 2002, said last Wednesday in a statement that it "is absolutely convinced that this complex conflict can not be solved by military means."

    Analysts predict more violence in the island's separatist armed conflict after the government's decision to abrogate the truce.

    Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.