By IANS,
Colombo : At least 12 combatants, including 10 Tamil Tigers, were killed and scores wounded as government troops and the rebels were locked in sporadic clashes in the northwestern Mannar and northeastern Welioya regions Saturday, military sources said here.
The ministry of defence said six Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and “many received injuries in a confrontation between security forces and LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), erupted in general area Chettiyarkattaiadampan on Mannar front Saturday morning”.
“In a subsequent search operation conducted in the area, troops have found six bodies of slain LTTE cadres along with some other warlike items, left behind by the fleeing rebels,” the ministry said.
It added that four more LTTE cadres were killed and six others injured in a separate pre-dawn gun battle in the general area north of Adampan in Mannar.
“An army soldier has made his supreme sacrifice while four others suffered injuries due to this clash,” it said.
In a separate incident, one soldier was killed and another injured as the rebels triggered a claymore mine targeting an army personnel carrier Friday evening in Halembewewa, Welioya.
In another incident in the north-central Anuradhapura district, a civil security official and a police special task force (STF) officer were injured in a claymore mine blast on the Vavuniya-Kebithigollewa road Saturday morning.
There was no immediate comment from the LTTE regarding these clashes.
Independent verifications on the battlefront casualties are not possible as journalists are barred from visiting the battlefront.