Sixteen people were killed and 39 injured as security forces clashed with Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's embattled north and east, the two sides reported yesterday.
Four soldiers died in the northern district of Mannar early yesterday when the rebels tried to breach a security line, the military said, placing guerrilla losses at nine killed and 36 injured.
A road-side bomb killed a university lecturer and a civil servant in the northern district of Jaffna yesterday, the defense ministry said, blaming the attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The ministry said the rebels had targeted soldiers on foot patrol. Three soldiers escaped with injuries while the two civilians died in the blast.
Nine rebels were killed and 36 wounded in one battle in the northwestern district of Mannar on Monday, after at least 10 rebels and possibly more than 20 were killed in two other clashes in the north the same day.
The LTTE, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, said on Monday 10 of their fighters were killed in two separate clashes. The military put the rebel death toll at more than 20.
The LTTE yesterday called for international pressure to be cranked up to force the Sri Lankan government to halt military operations and return to peace negotiations.
The LTTE, commonly referred to as the Tamil Tigers, accused Colombo in a statement of pursuing a military campaign and committing human rights abuses.
The timing of the statement was intended to coincide with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's address to the UN in New York later yesterday.
The LTTE wants the international community to push the Colombo administration to honor a 2002 ceasefire arranged by peace broker Norway. The truce is in tatters after an escalation of fighting since December 2005.
They also accused the government of making "schizophrenic public statements" on how it plans to find a solution to the conflict, which has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands since the war erupted in 1983.
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