The Sri Lankan navy sank two Tamil Tiger boats off the northeast coast, killing all the eight rebels on board, as fighting intensified in the embattled north, media reports said.
The Special Boat Squadron (SBS) sailors of the Sri Lankan Navy launched a surprise attack and destroyed two rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) assault boats as they appeared off Pooneryn Sea in Kilinochchi Tuesday night, killing all the eight rebel sailors on board.
Meanwhile, in ground clashes in the Kilinochchi district, 26 Tamil rebels and three soldiers were killed, while fighting in Vavuniya, Welioya and Kokavil claimed 19 rebel cadres and two soldiers, the defense ministry said.
Troops killed more than 11 LTTE cadres and wounded 50 others in Andankulam in North-eastern Welioya Tuesday, the military said.
"Two valiant soldiers laid their lives down in the battle, while another seven were wounded in the incidents," the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.
In a separate encounter, more than three LTTE rebels were reportedly shot dead in North of Kokavil Wednesday morning when troops intercepted a rebel movement, MCNS added.
The casualties cannot be independently verified as the authorities have barred international monitors from the battle zone. Both sides have been accused of exaggerating enemy casualties and underreporting their own.
Fighting flared up after the government pulled out of the 2002 cease-fire pact with the rebels January and vowed to crush the group by the end of the year.
More than 70,000 persons, most of them Tamils, were killed in the civil war that the LTTE has fought since 1983 for a separate state for the Tamil minority community in the Island nation.
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