Sri Lankan troops killed 29 Tamil Tiger rebels and two soldiers also died in clashes in the north, the military said on Sunday, as stepped-up fighting continues in the latest chapter of a long-running civil war.
Troops fought four separate battles with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern district of Vavuniya on Saturday, days after the rebels mounted their biggest-ever suicide operation by land backed by air strikes.
"The army killed 29 LTTE terrorists and a large number of terrorists were wounded in series of attacks in Vavuniya on Saturday," said a spokesman for the Media Centre for National Security, adding a soldier was also killed in the fighting.
The military said that in another confrontation in the northern aria of Welioya a soldier was killed while an intercepted rebel communication confirmed a rebel was injured. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the fighting and there were no independent accounts of what had happened or how many people were killed.
Military analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own. The latest fighting in the north, where a new chapter of a two decade civil war is focused after troops drove the Tigers from bastions in the east of the island, comes after the military said dozens of Tigers were killed in heavy clashes in the region last week.