By Xinhua
Colombo : Two rebels have been killed in a confrontation between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka, the military said Saturday.
The Media Centre for National Security said in a statement that the two women members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed in a battle triggered off by the rebels at Navathkulam in the northern district of Vanuniya around 2:30 p.m. Friday.
No damages were caused to the troops during the incident, the military added.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the 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 ceasefire agreement exist only on paper.