Sri Lankan troops killed 23 Tamil Tiger rebels in clashes in the north of the island, while a soldier was also killed in the fighting, a military spokesman said on Saturday. The clashes, in the northern district of Vavuniya and northwestern district of Mannar on Friday, were the latest engagements in a renewed civil war between government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters. “Troops attacked terrorist bunkers in Vavuniya in two separate places. Intercepted communications said eight terrorists were killed,” a spokesman at the Media Centre for National security said.
The spokesman added that a further 15 rebels were killed and more than 20 wounded in a series of small arms engagements and artillery and mortar fire in Vavuniya and Mannar districts, while a soldier was also killed in the fighting in Vavuniya.
The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, said the military had exaggerated the figures.
“There is fighting regularly in those areas but the military claim is not correct, they always exaggerate the figures,” rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyani told Reuters by telephone from rebel-held Kilinochchi. There was no independent confirmation of how many people were killed in the fighting or what had happened. Military analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own.
The fighting follows a major battle in the Jaffna peninsula on Wednesday in which the military said they killed 60 rebels. The Tigers said 20 soldiers were killed and more than 100 wounded in the clash, and that just one of their fighters was killed.