UN offices looted in Lanka

An ethnic minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman shows off documentation after registering her family at a school in Colombo yesterday. Hundreds of minority Tamils queued outside Hindu temples and schools after the defence ministry ordered police to take a fresh census of Tamils living in the city.Photo: AFP

The United Nations said Sunday its offices in the rebel-controlled north of Sri Lanka had been looted after aid workers were evacuated last week while at least 23 Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers were killed in fresh fighting in north.
Fighting raged through Sri Lanka's north at the weekend, leaving at least 23 Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers dead, the military said Sunday.
Battles erupted on Saturday as security forces moved to dismantle the Liberation Tigers Tamil of Eelam's (LTTE) stronghold in the north, the army said in a statement.
However, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website reported that heavy fighting broke out before dawn on Sunday in the southwest of Kilinochchi district.
"Exchange of heavy artillery and gunfire (between troops and LTTE) was reported simultaneously," the report said, but did not give further details.
The Sri Lankan military has said it is on the doorstep of the Tigers' political capital of Kilinochchi and will soon gain control of the town.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse told reporters last week that troops hoped to capture Kilinochchi by December.
"Seizing Kilinochchi would only be just one step away from Mullaittivu, the military fortress of the guerrillas," defence analyst Iqbal Athas wrote in the Sunday Times newspaper.
A statement from the UN said that it suspected the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were involved in the theft from buildings it had left on the orders of the Sri Lankan government.
The UN did not disclose what was stolen, but local media reported that the suspected rebels took large stocks of fuel and electricity generators.
UN and other international agencies pulled staff out of the tense area near the rebel political capital Kilinochchi after the government said it could not guarantee their safety.