Battles between government forces and ethnic Tamil separatists raged across northern Sri Lanka, with the military saying yesterday that it killed 28 rebels, while the rebels claimed 11 government troops died in the fighting.
Violence has spiked in recent weeks as government forces pushed deep into rebel-held territory in the north in a new offensive aimed at routing the Tamil Tigers after 25 years of civil war on the Indian Ocean island nation.
In new fighting on Wednesday, the military said it killed 11 rebels in the Welioya region, while one soldier was reported missing.
Another 17 rebels were killed in fighting in the Kilinochchi, Jaffna and Vavuniya regions, the military said.
With communication all but cut with the northern areas, rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.
However, the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site, citing unidentified rebel officials, reported that 11 government troops were killed on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Those deaths came in addition to earlier rebel reports that Tamil Tiger fighters killed 75 soldiers in recent days.
Independent verification of the fighting and casualties was not possible because journalists are banned from the war zone. Both sides have been accused of exaggerating enemy casualties and underreporting their own.
The Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country’s ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization at the hands of governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
Government officials, who formally pulled out of a tattered ceasefire in January, have vowed to crush the rebels by the end of the year.
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