At least 74 people were killed during a Sri Lankan military push to take the symbolic capital of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said on Monday.
Troops killed 67 rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and wounded 70 over three days of combat from Friday on several fronts surrounding the separatists’ northern strongholds, the military said.
Seven soldiers died and 54 were wounded in the same combat, part of an eight-month assault by the government with the aim of crushing the rebels to finally end a 25-year-old civil war that has killed 70 000 people.
There was no independent confirmation of the death tolls, since both sides regularly distort the figures and access to the war zones is restricted.
On Sunday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party won elections for two provincial councils, and said the victory was a show of support for his government’s military strategy since officially scrapping an ill-observed truce in January.
”The strength and morale that our heroic troops will receive from this victory in their battles to finally end bloody terrorism from our country is immeasurable,” Rajapaksa said in an statement.
Last week, the military said it was within artillery distance of Kilinochchi, the rebels’ defacto capital and a symbolic target for the government.
The rebels, who want to create an independent state for the ethnic minority Tamil people in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, have gone silent in recent weeks and could not be reached for comment. – Reuters