The Sri Lankan government admitted on Monday scores of its troops had been killed or injured in fierce fighting with the Tamil Tigers, its biggest reported battlefield loss in months.
The defence ministry said troops had edged closer to the rebels’ northern capital of Kilinochchi but the battles since Saturday had left 33 soldiers dead, three missing in action and 48 injured.
The ministry said the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also suffered heavy casualties, with the bodies of 11 rebels recovered from the battlefield.
”Troops have captured approximately half a square kilometre of land area from the LTTE,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to fighting on Sunday.
The main frontlines are currently about 10km to 15km away from Kilinochchi, according to military officials.
Sri Lanka’s hawkish government — which pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce in January — said several weeks ago its troops were poised to capture Kilinochchi.
It claimed over the weekend that it had breached the final LTTE defence line protecting the town.
But army units, despite high morale and a wave of public support in the ethnic Sinhalese-majority south, appear to have been held back by dogged rebel resistance and monsoon rains.
Journalists are not allowed access to the front but pictures released by the defence ministry on Monday showed vehicles bogged down as troops travelled cross country in muddied jungle terrain.
Aid officials who had rare access to the region said the Tigers had built a network of bunkers and other defences in the area, from where local civilians were evacuated weeks ago to other LTTE-held parts of the north.
The casualty figures given on Monday marked the biggest single loss for the security forces since April, when 43 soldiers were killed and 38 reported injured after an offensive on the Jaffna peninsula north of Kilinochchi.
Since then, the military had moved into rebel-held areas by taking a different route through the northern mainland.
There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, but the pro-rebel Puthinam.com website said the ethnic rebels had allowed government troops to advance into their territory — only to hit them with heavy fire.
Puthinam.com said the Tigers had suffered 12 killed in the weekend fighting but did not say if there were any other casualties.
The defence ministry said government soldiers, backed by aircraft and artillery fire, were advancing on at least two other fronts and had inflicted casualties on the Tigers.
There has been widespread speculation that the Sri Lankan government, which holds a slim majority in parliament, has been banking on a swift military success allowing it to hold snap elections more than a year ahead of schedule.
Tens of thousands have died on both sides since the LTTE launched its campaign for an independent state in 1972. – AFP
