By Xinhua
Colombo : At least 13 Tamil tiger rebels were killed in separate clashes with government troops in northern Sri Lanka, the military said Thursday.
Officials from the Media Centre for National Security said six Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were killed in three battles in Vavuniya district while three rebels were killed in Mannar district Wednesday.
In the Jaffna peninsula, four LTTE rebels were killed in a confrontation in Muhamalai at 13:10 GMT.
On the government side, eight soldiers were injured Wednesday in different battles with the LTTE in the north.
Clashes between government troops and the LTTE have shifted to the north after government said in July that the entire eastern province was free of rebels.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence since the end of 2005, making the Norwegian brokered cease-fire agreement exist only on paper.