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Death toll rises to 40 as rebels and troops clash
Fierce clashes between troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels left 12 insurgents and a soldier dead in northern Sri Lanka, lifting the death toll from a day of fighting to 40, the military said on Sunday.
- AP
- Published: 00:11 January 28, 2008
Colombo: Fierce clashes between troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels left 12 insurgents and a soldier dead in northern Sri Lanka, lifting the death toll from a day of fighting to 40, the military said on Sunday.
The latest battles were reported in northeastern Welioya village, where nine rebels were killed in two separate incidents on Saturday, a defence official said on condition of anonymity citing government rules.
In Muhamalai village in the north a soldier died in a rebel ambush and later government troops destroyed a bunker in the same region killing three rebels, he said.
Gunbattles
Earlier, soldiers fired artillery and fought separate gunbattles in Welioya and northern Vavuniya village, killing 27 rebels, according to the military.
Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment.
Government troops have opened up four fronts around the rebels' de facto state in northern Sri Lanka surrounding the territory, while the air force has launched a mission to kill the group's top brass and crush the rebels' decades-old separatist war.
On Saturday, air force jets targeted leaders of the rebels' sea wing in an airstrike on the guerrillas' naval headquarters near Puthukudiyiruppu village in Mullaitivu, military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said, without providing details on damage.
A pro-rebel website, however, said the bombing struck the offices of British aid agency White Pigeon, which is involved in demining and designing prosthetics for land mine victims. A spokesman at the aid agency's office in Britain said that he had not heard of any damage to its offices in Sri Lanka.
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