At least 27 soldiers and 120 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed as government forces battled their way to the outskirts of the rebels' political headquarters, the defence ministry said yesterday. Heavy fighting raged along three fronts as troops closed in on the town of Kilinochchi, the ministry said.But it added that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were putting up stiff resistance. "Twenty-seven soldiers have made their ultimate sacrifice for the motherland while 70 others suffered injuries during the battle. A few other soldiers have not been able to join with their units so far," a ministry statement said.
It said intercepted radio transmissions of the Tigers indicated that they had also suffered heavy casualties. "Over 120 LTTE cadres have been killed and 80 others injured in the Kilinochchi area since Sunday morning," the ministry said.
The ministry statement came as the Tigers announced through the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website that 43 government troops had been killed and 70 more were wounded in a confrontation northwest of Kilinochchi. Another 35 soldiers were killed in fighting on Friday and Saturday along the southern defences of Kilinochchi, Tamilnet said.
Sri Lanka's government, which pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce in January, has vowed to take the Tiger political capital and dismantle the LTTE's mini-state. Last week, the military captured the strategically important town of Pooneryn on the northern edge of the mainland and opened a new front to advance on Kilinochchi from the north.
The Tigers tacitly admitted that they had lost vast areas to advancing government forces, and said the current fighting was at a location just eight kilometres (five miles) west of Kilinochchi. "The main battle front was between Uruththirapuram and Kugnchup-paranthan," Tamilnet said. "A pitched battle was fought near the Siva temple at Uruththirapuram."
The Tigers said they had recovered the bodies of eight government troops following heavy fighting on Sunday, but did not give their own casualties.