Sri Lankan troops killed 16 Tamil Tiger rebels in four clashes in the north of the island, the military said today.
The fighting on the Jaffna peninsula in north-western Mannar and the eastern district of Trincomalee is the latest between government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militants.
The military is attempting to drive the rebels out of Mannar after evicting them earlier this year from jungles they controlled in the east.
The Tigers are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east.
About 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between the military and LTTE fighters since early 2006. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since the war erupted in 1983.