Colombo, (Xinhua) Over 135 guerrillas of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and 10 soldiers have been killed in fighting in the island’s north in the past 10 days, defence officials said Monday.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the defence spokesman, told reporters that 137 LTTE rebels and 10 soldiers have died in the confrontations in the northern districts of Mannar and Vavuniya.
A large number of LTTE rebels and 21 soldiers were injured, Nanayakkara said.
The battles are shifting to the north after the troops in mid-July claimed that rebels had been completely evicted from the eastern province.
Separately, Nanayakkara said that some 30 LTTE rebels were killed in the air strikes of the Air Force at Viswamadu in the northern Mullaithivu district on Oct 2.
Some 69 rebels were killed in another air strike also in the north on Sep 25, Nanayakkara said.
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.