Sri Lankan military says it has killed 49 rebels

Sri Lankan forces captured a Tamil Tiger supply center and bombed a rebel training base amid a surge in the island's civil war that killed 49 insurgents and two soldiers, the military said Friday.

"This shows that the soldiers are moving forward, gaining ground," military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The army offensives are taking place in areas with a lot of rebel fighters, leading to the high death tolls, he said.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment.

The government has vowed to crush the Tamil Tigers and capture the vast area controlled by the rebels by the end of this year.

In the latest fighting, troops seized a key supply base Thursday in the northern Vavuniya district that was used to replenish the Tamil Tigers' front line troops, Nanayakkara said.

The battle, as well as two other clashes in Vavuniya, killed 30 rebels, he said.

Other fighting Thursday along the front lines in the Mannar and Welioya regions bordering the rebels' de facto state in the north killed 19 rebels and two soldiers, he said.

The military said fighting over the past week has killed 180 rebels and 19 soldiers. Analysts accuse both sides of exaggerating enemy losses and underreporting their own casualties.

Meanwhile, air force fighter jets pounded a rebel training base Friday deep inside rebel territory, the army said. Nanayakkara did not provide details of damage or casualties, but said the pilots confirmed that the target was hit.

It was not possible to independently verify the military reports because journalists are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place.

The Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Source: AP