Clashes kill 42 in northern Sri Lanka

The military in Sri Lanka said Friday 38 Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers were killed while 20 soldiers were wounded in separated clashes in the north on Thursday.

Officials from the Media Center for National Security said 16 LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels and four soldiers were killed while 15 soldiers were injured in three battles in the Welioya district.

In the Mannar district, government troops killed 12 rebels in Parappakandal area while three soldiers were injured in Adampan area.

In Vavuniya, seven rebels were killed and one soldier was wounded in several battles.

In the Jaffna peninsula, three LTTE rebels were killed and one soldier was injured in two separated clashes.

The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday that 104 soldiers and police officers were killed while 822 were wounded in February during the conflicts between government troops and the LTTE.

It also said 80 civilians were killed while 201 were injured in the conflicts.

The military said 871 LTTE rebels were killed in February, in addition to about 500 rebels killed in January.

Sri Lanka's security forces are currently engaging the rebels in the Northern Province with heavy artillery and mortar duels being reported regularly.

Having taken over the control of the Eastern Province last July, government leaders now vow to crush the Tamil Tigers from their last Northern Province bastion.

The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people.

Source: reliefweb.int