Sri Lankan Army jets dropped 48 bombs on a village in Tamil Tiger-controlled territory on Friday, a pro-rebel website said, amid ongoing violence in the troubled northeast.
The attack on Muttayankattu village in Mullaitivu district killed 10 cows and devastated a large swath of farmland, the Tamilnet website said, adding the jets carried out six bombing raids over a two-hour period Friday morning.
It was one of the biggest bombing raids to hit the region, Tamilnet said, and followed a flare-up in violence that saw the government suffer record losses with 130 troops killed in clashes earlier in the week.
The fighting has cast doubt over peace talks scheduled for later this month.
But despite the continued violence, diplomats said Norway, the top peace broker in Sri Lanka, was planning to dispatch special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer on Tuesday to work out details for the peace talks set for October 28 and 29.
Norway has been working to restore the 2002 ceasefire and end spiralling violence which has claimed more than 2,200 lives since December, according to an official tally.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in the three-decades-old conflict for a Tamil homeland on the Sinhalese-majority island.
Japan, Sri Lanka's main financial backer, was also sending special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi to the island on Sunday to meet with the government and the secretive leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
{{/usCountry}}Japan, Sri Lanka's main financial backer, was also sending special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi to the island on Sunday to meet with the government and the secretive leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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