COLOMBO - Fifteen Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers were killed in clashes in Sri Lanka’s north on Saturday, the military said, capping a deadly week that included two bomb attacks in the capital. Dozens more combatants were wounded in the fighting in the northwestern district of Mannar and northern Jaffna peninsula, where renewed civil war is now focused amid near daily air raids, bombings and land and sea battles.“Troops attacked a bunker line of the terrorists ... in Mannar,” a military spokesman said, declining to give his name in line with policy. “Ground troops confirmed nine terrorists were killed and 47 wounded.”
Six rebel fighters were killed in a separate clash in Muhamalai, which sits on a heavily-defended “border” which separates government from rebel-held territory in the far northern Jaffna peninsula.