By SPA
Colombo, Sri Lanka : Soldiers overran separatist Tamil rebel bunkers and traded artillery fire in Sri Lanka’s embattled north, leaving 36 insurgents dead, the military said Sunday, just days after a 2002 cease-fire officially collapsed.
Troops destroyed four bunkers in the Nagarkovil and Muhamalai areas of Jaffna peninsula Saturday, killing six Tamil Tiger rebels, the Defense Ministry said.
Separately, soldiers attacked two bunkers in Mannar district’s Adampan village and exchanged artillery rounds with the rebels, killing 10 of them, the ministry said.
In Parappaankandal village, also in Mannar, soldiers overran six rebel bunkers and killed 10 guerrillas, the ministry said in a statement.
Clashes also broke out Saturday in three villages bordering Mannar, killing 10 rebels and wounding nine soldiers, the statement was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.