Fighting kills 32 in Sri Lanka
A series of battles between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels across Sri Lanka’s embattled north killed 28 rebels and four soldiers, the military said today.
Fighting has increased in recent months amid government promises to capture the rebels’ de facto state in the north and crush the group by the end of the year. But diplomats and other observers say the army is facing more resistance than it had expected.
Army troops fought separate gunbattles in the northern Wanni region on Saturday that killed 15 Tamil rebels and one soldier, said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. In the north-eastern Welioya region, a clash left three soldiers dead and one rebel dead, he said.
Also on Saturday, army troops destroyed two rebel bunkers and killed 10 rebels in the Mannar district, while in northern Jaffna peninsula, two more rebels died.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment.
It was not possible to independently verify the military’s claim because journalists are banned from the war zone. Both the government and the rebels often exaggerate the other side’s casualties and underreport their own.
The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalised for decades by successive governments run by majority ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
