Sri Lankan troops killed around 30 Tamil Tigers in a clash overnight in jungle in the island's restive east, the military said on Wednesday, hours after the navy said it had killed around 40 insurgents in a sea battle.
The military said soldiers had captured a rebel bunker line during the fight in a swathe of landlocked eastern jungle called Thoppigala, where Tiger fighters are still entrenched after the fall of their eastern stronghold.
The clash came hours after the navy said late on Tuesday it had destroyed five Tiger vessels after being attacked by two dozen rebel boats off Sri Lanka's far northern tip.
There has been a series of land and sea battles in recent months as Sri Lanka's long-running civil war flared into heavy action again. "We have destroyed three satellite camps (in Thoppigala) and are clearing the area. There are a lot of minefields," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. "One Tamil civilian in the area said there are 73 prisoners being held by the Tigers there, including one army corporal," he added. "They cannot hold on to that area now because they don't have any food." Samarasinghe estimated that around 150 Tiger fighters remained in the Thoppigala area.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for an independent state in the island's north and east and widely listed as a banned terrorist group, accused the navy of starting the sea battle. They said just two of their own fighters died in the confrontation.
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