Fighting raged through Sri Lanka's north at the weekend, leaving at least 23 Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers dead, the military said Sunday. Battles erupted on Saturday as security forces moved to dismantle the Liberation Tigers Tamil of Eelam's (LTTE) stronghold in the north, the army said in a statement.
The defence ministry says the LTTE has lost 6,761 fighters since January, while 661 government soldiers have died during the same period. The LTTE did not comment on the military's latest claims, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet website reported heavy fighting on Sunday in the south-west of Kilinochchi district.
Sri Lanka's military has said it is on the doorstep of the Tigers' political capital of Kilinochchi town. Aid agencies evacuated the area last week on government orders, and the United Nations said Sunday that its abandoned offices had been looted, allegedly by Tiger fighters.
The UN did not disclose what was stolen, but local media reported that the suspected rebels took large stocks of fuel and electricity generators.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse told reporters recently that his troops hoped to capture Kilinochchi by December. "Seizing Kilinochchi would only be just one step away from Mullaittivu, the military fortress of the guerrillas," defence analyst Iqbal Athas wrote in the Sunday Times newspaper.
Athas said the ongoing battles had entered "an even fiercer phase."
Having ejected the LTTE from the east in July 2007, Colombo pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce with the rebels in January and has poured a record 1.5 billion dollars into this year's war efforts.
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