By Rob Taylor
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will re-deploy thousands ofelite police commandos from the country's east and move themnorth to help combat Tamil Tiger rebels as civil war fightingintensifies, security forces said on Friday.
Around 2,000 Special Task Force police, or STF, would movefrom formerly Tamil-controlled eastern provinces, now held bygovernment troops, to areas threatened by Tiger fighters in thenorth, the military said.
"By redeploying the STF we will be able to free some troopsfor future operations in other areas," military spokesmanBrigadier Udaya Nanyakkara told Reuters.
Since the 2006 resumption of a 25-year civil war betweenethnic Tamil separatists and government forces in which 70,000people have died, the military has recaptured the country'seast.
Security forces are now pressing back Tiger rebels in theirnorthern strongholds and have vowed to end the bloody conflictby this year or early in 2009.
Nanyakkara said 50 Tiger separatists had been killed infighting since Wednesday, although casualty numbers are hard toverify since Nordic ceasefire monitors left the country afterthe government abandoned a truce agreement in January.
Both sides regularly inflate the numbers of those killed bytheir own fighters to maintain frontline morale. A Tigerspokesman could not immediately be reached to verify themilitary's claim.
But as the conflict turns increasingly vicious andatrocities blamed on both sides by international rightsmonitors mount, a police spokesman said recent local electionsin the east had brought a degree of security "normalcy".
That would allow regular police to replace the STF in someeastern areas, the spokesman said. Government forces haveclaimed full control over the area since mid-last year.
Re-deployed STF commandos would help end a spate ofroadside bombings by the Tigers, targeting what he said weremainly civilians in the northern districts of Vavuniya andAnuradhapura, Nanyakkara said.
Government-backed former rebels won nine local contests inMarch in a dry run for wider provincial elections in Mayunderpinning the government's aim to defeat the Tigers usingboth the ballot box and the current offensive.
The result was a blow to the Tigers, who are fighting foran independent homeland in the country's north and east.
(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal; editing by DavidFox)
