By Xinhua,
Colombo : The military in Sri Lanka said on Saturday that nine Tamil Tiger rebels and 11 soldiers were killed while 27 rebels and 20 soldiers injured in heavy clashes in the north on Friday.
Officials from the Ministry of Defense said the confrontations erupted when the government troops came under resistance from LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels at Tunukkai town and Mallavi town in the rebels’ controlled area Wanni on Friday morning.
The rebels deployed hundreds of mortars in order to slowdown the advancing troops, the military said.
However, a pro-LTTE source said at least 30 soldiers were killed and more than 60 others injured when the troops attempted to break the LTTE defense in the one-day battles.
Mallavi is the fourth largest town in the Vanni area, the source also said.
But the LTTE did not provide any details on their casualties.
Clashes between the troops and the LTTE continued in the north despite the ongoing 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in the capital of the island.
Sri Lanka’s government troops are currently battling the LTTE in the north with the aim of totally crushing the organization.
The LTTE has been fighting against the government since the mid-1980s to establish an independent homeland for the island’s minority Tamils, which led to the death of more than 70,000 people.