Five S Lanka troops killed in battle with Tigers

COLOMBO, July 31 (Reuters) Five Sri Lankan soldiers were today killed and another six were injured in a ground battle in the island's restive east on Monday, the army said, in the first military advance on Tamil Tiger territory since a 2002 truce.

The military said it believed dozens of Tigers had also been killed during the fight, but there was no immediate confirmation from the rebels.

''From the government forces, five have been killed,'' a military spokesman said. ''There has been a ground battle.'' A senior Tiger political wing leader in the east today said Sri Lanka's four-year ceasefire is now void and the island's two-decade civil war is back on.

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