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Sri Lanka military: New fighting kills 33

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-11 16:41

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lankan soldiers launched a new wave of attacks against Tamil separatists, sparking battles that killed 30 rebels and three soldiers, the military said Monday.

Fighting has escalated on the Indian Ocean island in recent months, with the military stepping up ground assaults and airstrikes on Tamil Tiger rebel-held territory. The government has promised to dismantle the rebels' de facto state by the end of this year.

The latest clashes erupted Sunday as soldiers pushed into rebel-held territory in the north, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

An ethnic Tamil woman, who was injured in a shell attack in Mullaitheevu, lays on a bed in a hospital in Vavuniya, August 8th, 2008. [Agencies]

Scattered battles along the front lines in the Kilinochchi and Vavuniya regions killed 22 rebels and two soldiers, while seven rebels died in Welioya, he said.

Army troops also killed one rebel in the Batticaloa district in the country's east, he said. The government claimed last year to have driven the rebels out of the east, but pockets of Tamil Tiger fighters remain.

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In previously reported fighting Sunday in the north, soldiers attacked guerrillas in the Welioya region, triggering a fierce battle that killed 15 rebels and wounded two soldiers, the military said. On the Jaffna peninsula, soldiers launched an assault on rebel bunkers, killing 15 guerrillas before retreating without casualties, it said.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not available for comment. Both sides routinely exaggerate enemy casualties and underreport their own. Independent verification of the fighting is not possible because journalists are barred from the war zone.

The rebels have been fighting for an independent state in the north and east since 1983, following decades of marginalization of ethnic Tamils by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.