By Xinhua
Colombo : The Sri Lankan Army Thursday said that the government troops killed 14 Tamil rebels in separate clashes in the north.
According to defence officials, at least six fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed in an attack launched by the troops on their hideouts at Muhamalai in the Jaffna peninsula at 2:00 a.m. local time.
Five more LTTE rebels were killed in a confrontation with the troops at Adamppan in the Mannar district, while three rebels were killed in Mannar in an exchange of fire when a group of rebels tried to ambush the troops at Giant Tank at around 9:00 a.m local time, the military officials said.
Fighting between the two sides has been a daily occurrence in the north after the government claimed in July that the Eastern Province was free from the clutches of LTTE.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting against 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 fresh wave of violence since the end of 2005, making the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement exist only on paper.