Sri Lankan troops fought a series of clashes with Tamil Tiger rebels over the weekend, killing 22 rebels, destroying several bunkers and capturing an insurgent base, the military said today.
Troops killed 8 Tigers early today during a raid on a rebel bunker line on the far northern Jaffna peninsula, and three others in a clash in the northern district of Vavuniya, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
Yesterday, troops took control of a base on the Tigers' side of a heavily defended "border" that separates government from rebel-held territory, hours after capturing an insurgent checkpoint further west on the forward defence line, he said.
"They abandoned the base, maybe due to artillery fire and various engagements in the area," Nanayakkara said. "So they must have thought there was no advantage in staying and fled."
He said eight Tigers and one soldier were killed during the clash over the checkpoint in the northwestern district of Mannar, and that troops had overrun seven rebel bunkers there.
The military said three more rebels died yesterday in two separate clashes.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are seeking to carve out an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, were not immediately available for comment. There was no independent account of what had happened or how many people were killed.
However, pro-rebel website www.tamilnet.comcited the Tigers as saying 17 soldiers were killed and 54 were wounded in yesterday's Mannar clash, and that the army had been defeated.