Sri Lanka says battle with Tiger rebels kills dozens

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

COLOMBO, June 3 (Reuters) A fierce mortar and artillery duel between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tigers killed dozens overnight, the military said today, but the rebels denied suffering casualties.

The military said 10 soldiers were killed and 20 injured during the clash in the northern district of Vavuniya, the new focus of renewed civil war between the state and separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said troops killed 52 rebels, many of them child soldiers, but the Tigers denied any losses and claimed to have destroyed a military armoury. There was no independent confirmation of what happened.

Analysts say each side exaggerates enemy losses and plays down its own.

''There was an LTTE mortar, artillery and ground attack against Vavuniya Pompaimadu forward defence line last night. We lost 10 soldiers,'' Samarasinghe said.

''Our ground troops and intelligence reports confirmed more than 52 LTTE cadres were killed, most of them child soldiers. We have recovered some bodies also.'' The Tigers, who are fighting for an independent state in the island's north and east, said they attacked and destroyed a military artillery point and shell store along the front line that separates government from rebel-held territory.

Land and sea battles and air strikes take place almost daily and renewed fighting has killed around 4,000 troops, civilians and rebels since last year.

''Last night our artillery units shelled Pompaimadu artillery base. The artillery pieces and the storage were destroyed. It was burning until morning,'' Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the rebels' de facto capital of Kilinochchi in the far north of the island.

''That artillery point was causing harassment to civilians in the border villages and causing so many civilian casualties along with displacements,'' he added. ''We had to neutralise and destroy the position. The mission was accomplished.'' The government has vowed to destroy the Tigers militarily.

The rebels say they will step up attacks using a makeshift air force of light planes smuggled into the country in pieces.

Analysts say there is no clear winner on the horizon and fear that the conflict, which has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983, could rumble on for years more.

REUTERS ABM RK2132

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