Sri Lankan soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged sporadic gunfire yesterday in the northwest, as the death toll from three days of fighting rose to at least 47, the military said.
Twenty Tamil Tigers and nine soldiers were killed on Friday in clashes in northwestern Mannar District, about 220km from the capital, Colombo, said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.
The battle marked the opening of a new front in escalating hostilities between Sri Lankan soldiers and the Tamil guerrillas in the northwest, as fighting had previously been concentrated in northern and eastern districts.
"Even this morning terrorists fired artillery and mortars at our troops and we retaliated," Samarasinghe said, adding that five soldiers had succumbed to injuries overnight.
There was no independent confirmation of the figures, and Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not immediately reachable for comment.
Ilanthirayan had called the situation "serious" on Friday.
Samarasinghe earlier said the military launched the operation to neutralize rebel gun positions in the Mannar-Vavuniya area.
He said the bodies of 20 Tamil Tigers were counted near a defensive line that separates rebel-held areas and the government-controlled territory. Soldiers recovered weapons, ammunition and other military equipment, he said.
"Our aim is to neutralize the terrorists' artillery and mortar positions in the area so that civilian settlements and our camps are safe," Samarasinghe said.
Also on Friday, government soldiers and guerrillas clashed in eastern Batticaloa District, after which troops recovered the bodies of six rebels, Samarasinghe said.
At least 13 Tamil Tigers were also killed in separate clashes in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, he said.
Eastern Sri Lanka has seen a sharp spike in violence, with the government launching a series of offensives in recent months to take territory from the rebels.
Meanwhile, a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up while a soldier searched him in northern Sri Lanka on Saturday, the military said.
The blast in Jaffna town, the heartland of the ethnic minority Tamils, killed the bomber and the soldier, Samarasinghe said.
RSS