By Xinhua,
Colombo : Some 60 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were killed while 28 more were injured in separate clashes in the island’s north, defense officials said Monday.
Media Center for National Security (MCNS) said that the rebels were killed Sunday in Vavuniya, Welioya and Jaffna fronts. Some three soldiers were killed while 24 others had also been injured in the clashes, officials added.
The bodies of two LTTE female cadres killed in the fighting were handed over to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital which would be handed over later to the LTTE via International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Troops now say their forward march in the LTTE heartlands in the north is continuing successfully. The rebels since the government cleared the entire eastern province from their control is now limited to just two districts in the north – Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu.
Sri Lankan government maintains that the present military thrust was aimed at liberating the area from rebel control in order to free the Tamil minority civilians from terrorism.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting the government troops since the mid 1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the island’s north and east provinces. Over 70,000 people have died in the conflict.