Sri Lankan troops killed 23 Tamil Tiger rebels in clashes in the north of the island, while a soldier was killed in separate fighting, a military spokesman said today.
A spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said 15 rebels were killed and more than 20 wounded in a series of small arms engagements and artillery and mortar fire in Vavuniya and Mannar districts. A soldier was also killed in the fighting in Vavuniya.
The clashes yesterday were the latest engagements in a renewed civil war between government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters.
The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, said the military had exaggerated the figures.
"There is fighting regularly in those areas but the military claim is not correct," rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyani said.
There was no independent confirmation of how many people were killed in the fighting. Both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own.
The fighting follows a major battle in the Jaffna peninsula on Wednesday in which the military said they killed 60 rebels. The Tigers said 20 soldiers were killed and more than 100 wounded with one of their fighters killed.
An air strike last week killed the leader of the Tigers' political wing in a blow to hopes of ending the two-decade conflict soon.
Around 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between the military and the LTTE guerrillas since early 2006. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since the war erupted in 1983.