Sri Lanka military attacked rebel positions in the island’s far north on Sunday, amidst daily land, air and sea raids, killing 61 Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said on Monday.
The fresh attacks, which also saw 15 soldiers killed, came after a rebel suicide bomber riding a motorbike killed 11 people, mostly police officers, in the capital, Colombo, on Friday.
Fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January, though a renewed civil war has been raging since 2006.
So far, according to a compilation of military data, about 360 rebels have been killed in the fighting in May with the loss of 41 soldiers. An estimated 70 000 people have been killed in the 25-year civil war.
The most recent battles took place in the northern districts of Vavuniya, Polonnaruwa and the north-western district of Mannar, the military said.
Independent confirmation of battlefield casualties is not possible because of the lack of access, and both sides are known to exaggerate the other’s losses.
Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of the long-running war, given superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island’s east. But they still see no clear winner on the horizon.
The Tigers are regularly hitting back with suicide attacks increasingly targeting civilians and using roadside bombs, experts and the military say, which has deterred tourists and worried some investors in the $27-billion economy. — Reuters