Sri Lanka's forces have attacked five Tamil Tiger boats in the north yesterday while separately troops have killed 39 rebels and one soldier died in fighting, the military said today.
The clashes were the latest in renewed civil war that has seen near daily air raids, bombings and land and sea battles.
A six-year truce between the state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formally ended on Wednesday, opening the way for a push to claim the Tigers' northern stronghold and a bloody escalation in a 25-year civil war.
The fighting in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, northern districts of Vavuniya, Pollonnaruwa and northwestern district of Mannar came days after 27 people were killed in a bus ambush in the central town of Buttala, which the military blamed on the Tigers.
The military said they had killed 39 Tamil Tiger rebels in fighting yesterday and one solder also died. Separately the military in northern Jaffna peninsula had attacked five boats of the Tigers.
"Troops attacked a line of LTTE terrorist bunkers ... south of Adampan Tank in Mannar and completely destroyed six to eight of them," said a national security spokesman.
"Troops also recovered the bodies of two female terrorists and some weapons."
The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the fighting, and there were no independent accounts of how many people died. Both parties usually make widely differing claims about the same engagements in a local propaganda war.