SRI LANKA: Military say troops kill seventy-two Tamil Tiger rebels in far north of country

Record ID: 375283

  • Title: SRI LANKA: Military say troops kill seventy-two Tamil Tiger rebels in far north of country
  • Date: 13th April 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Sinhala) PRIVATE MAHENDRA SAYING: "The responsibility of my unit is to move as small teams and attack the front lines of the enemy and destroy their bunkers and return "
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA2SSLH2WWXHQU6M0TOAN894WEM
  • Story Text: The rebels meanwhile claimed 31 soldiers and a policeman killed against three of their own dead.
    The long-running civil war between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels has been escalating with near daily land, sea and air battles.
    " Our main aim right now is not take territory but to attack the LTTE and to reduce their numbers and their strength. But we are ready to capture territory as soon as we are ordered to do so", said Military Spokesman Brigadier Kamal Gunaratne.
    He said seven soldiers were killed and 27 others wounded in that fighting, while clashes elsewhere on Saturday killed 12 Tamil Tiger rebels and one government solder.
    The fighting came a week after a suspected rebel suicide bomber killed the country's highways minister and 13 others attending a marathon race near the capital.
    The Tigers, fighting for an independent state in the north and east, said in an email statement sent overnight that heavy fighting erupted when troops attempted to move into rebel-held areas in Mannar.
    The Tamil Tigers also said that a rebel ambush in northern Jaffna peninsula killed one solder and a confrontation in an eastern district on Thursday killed an elite police commando.
    The Military denied the rebel claims.
    Both the government and rebels make death toll claims that are rarely possible to verify independently.
    President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has pledged to destroy the Tigers militarily.
    After driving the rebels from the east the armed forces are focusing on Tiger-held areas in north, intensifying fighting in the civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people since 1983.
    The rebels have hit back with bombings in Colombo and elsewhere in the relatively peaceful south of the island when they have come under military pressure in the past.
    Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of the war, given superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island's east.
    But they see no clear final winner and rebels still retain striking capability despite high security and military gains.
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