Sri Lanka says winning battle with Tigers

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government said on Sunday it had pushed back a Tamil Tiger offensive on the northern Jaffna peninsula, but fighting continued and analysts remained skeptical that Colombo was telling the whole truth.

On Saturday the Tigers broke through army defenses in the northern army-held Jaffna peninsula, cut off from the rest of the island by rebel lines. Telephone contact with the town remains extremely difficult.

"The area is now totally under control," an army spokesman said. "We have pushed them back behind their FDL (forward defense line). "

The military said 27 personnel had been killed and 87 wounded so far in the Jaffna battle, which erupted after days of fighting further south that was initially sparked by the closure of a rebel-held sluice gate providing water to government territory.

International ceasefire monitors said they believed the rebels were trying to cut the supply lines to Jaffna, an area that has changed hands several times in two decades of civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people.

With the main Jaffna airbase apparently hit by rebel artillery fire and Tiger fighters landing by sea on a navy-held island off the peninsula, Janes' Defense Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas said the military appeared under serious pressure.

"Last night, it was looking pretty grim," he said. "With the air base under fire, one of the umbilicals to Jaffna has been cut."

Police said Special Task Force police commandos had also attacked a rebel camp in the eastern district of Batticaloa

The military said 27 personnel had been killed and 87 wounded so far in the Jaffna battle, which erupted after days of fighting further south that was initially sparked by the closure of a rebel-held sluice gate providing water to government territory.

International ceasefire monitors said they believed the rebels were trying to cut the supply lines to Jaffna, an area that has changed hands several times in two decades of civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people.

With the main Jaffna airbase apparently hit by rebel artillery fire and Tiger fighters landing by sea on a navy-held island off the peninsula, Janes' Defense Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas said the military appeared under serious pressure.

"Last night, it was looking pretty grim," he said. "With the air base under fire, one of the umbilicals to Jaffna has been cut."

Police said Special Task Force police commandos had also attacked a rebel camp in the eastern district of Batticaloa.