Five Tamil rebels killed in clashes

Sri Lankan troops attacked Tamil Tiger rebel positions across northern defense lines, leaving five insurgents dead, and a car bomb exploded in the east, killing a soldier, the military said.

Soldiers spotted a gathering of separatist rebels in Nagarkovil village, on the northern Jaffna Peninsula, and then opened fire on Saturday to defend their position, an official at the Defense Ministry's information center said on condition of anonymity, citing government policy.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan denied any clash took place in the area.

Both the government and rebels routinely inflate each other's casualty numbers and lower their own.

The area is restricted, making it difficult to gather independent accounts of clashes.

CAR BOMB

Separately, a car bomb exploded on Saturday as a group of soldiers approached the vehicle in Narakkamulla, a village in the east recently seized from Tamil Tiger rebels, the ministry official said.

One soldier was killed and six more wounded in the blast, he said.

On Friday, government troops and the guerrillas clashed on two frontiers in the north, leaving seven rebels and three soldiers dead, the military said.

DISCRIMINATION

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese- controlled governments.

A Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in 2002 brought relative calm to the country.

However, a new wave of violence began in December 2005 and has killed more than 5,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

More than 70,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began.

Despite the ceasefire's collapse, neither side has officially withdrawn from the pact, fearing international isolation.

The government celebrated the recapture of portions of eastern Sri Lanka in July, gaining total control of the Eastern Province for the first time in 13 years.

The rebels still control a virtual state in the north.