Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: Lanka fighting kills 30 Tigers, 2 soldiers

Lanka fighting kills 30 Tigers, 2 soldiers
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ASIANAGE on 12 October, 2008 03:39:46
 
Colombo, Oct. 12: Separate battles between government forces and Tamil
separatists across Sri Lanka’s volatile northern region killed 30 rebels and
two soldiers, the military said on Sunday.
The new fighting came as soldiers closed in on the rebels’ administrative
capital of Kilinochchi in a campaign aimed at routing the rebels and ending the
25-year-old war that has killed more than 70,000 people.
The worst fighting took place on Saturday around Kilinochchi where two separate
clashes killed 26 rebels and two soldiers, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya
Nanayakkara.
The same fighting wounded 16 rebels and seven soldiers. The Army has said its
forces are about 1.6 km from the outskirts of Kilinochchi.
Other battles in Welioya and Vavuniya killed four rebels on Saturday, said
Brig. Nanayakkara.
With nearly all communications to the north severed, a rebel spokesman could
not be contacted for comment.
Independent verification of the military’s claims is nearly impossible
because most journalists are banned from the war zone. Both sides routinely
exaggerate enemy losses and underreport their own.
Fighting has escalated in recent months, with the military capturing a series
of rebel bases and large chunks of territory.
Officials have pledged to crush the rebels by the end of the year. The rebels
have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the
country’s ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced marginalisation by successive
governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. —AP