And it is increasingly the residents here who suffer, many say, as the government and Tamil separatist groups carry out a vicious "undeclared war" that targets civilians more than it does guerrillas or soldiers.

"Anything can happen at any time," M. V. Kanamylnathan, chief editor of the Tamil-language newspaper Uthayan, told AFP from his offices.

"It is like a volcano -- people go about their daily lives and it is unseen but it can erupt at any time to do as much damage as possible," he said.

Just two months ago gunmen stormed the Uthayan building, killing two and wounding several others in an attack that has yet to be accounted for.

With the national truce unravelling amid daily violence and peace monitors virtually crippled by Tamil Tiger demands to lessen their presence, Sri Lanka is again veering dangerously close to open warfare.

Since December 825 people have died in military operations or tit-for-tat killings across the island in a surge of violence.

But the killings and disappearances in Jaffna -- a spit of government-controlled land in the country's northern tip that is cut off from the rest of the island by a vast swathe of territory controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- already amount to war.

"There is an undeclared war. The (2002 ceasefire agreement) is there, but what happens all the time is this side or that side does something and the people are caught in the middle," Kanamylnathan said.

Life continues -- the streets are crowded with traffic and the shops around the bus station do a brisk trade in everything from dried food to household goods.

But heavily-armed army bunkers commandeer almost every street corner. Even before night falls the streets empty in Jaffna, where scars of a turbulent past are evident in the bullet-pocked walls and bombed-out buildings that blight nearly every neighbourhood.

"Even with no recent incidents, people are still living with a lot of tension," said 65-year-old shop worker Arumuganathan, who was buying a paper at a newsstand before hurrying home.

"Every time something happens, the LTTE blames the government and the government blames the LTTE. Because of this the civilians are the victims," he said.