Government soldiers launched a pre-dawn attack yesterday on Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's embattled north, triggering a battle that killed 13 rebels and one soldier, the military said.
Troops pushed into rebel-held territory in the village of Kalaiadachchan in the northern Mannar district and attacked rebel positions, a defense ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The ensuing gunbattle killed 13 rebels and one soldier, the official said. Another 12 soldiers were wounded.
The battle was part of a heavy increase in fighting in the country's civil war in recent months. The government has vowed to crush the rebels by the end of the year, but diplomats and other observers say the army is facing more resistance than it expected.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment.
Scattered fighting across the north on Tuesday killed 51 rebels and two soldiers, the military said.
It was not possible to independently verify the military's claims because journalists are banned from the war zone. Both the government and rebels often exaggerate the other side's casualties and underreport their own.
Meanwhile, a human-rights group on Tuesday blamed Sri Lankan security forces for the massacre of 17 aid workers 20 months ago, saying police and paramilitary forces shot the victims as they knelt on the ground and begged for their lives.
The killing of the Sri Lankan workers for the French aid agency Action Against Hunger horrified many. No one has been charged in their deaths, and holding someone accountable is seen as a crucial test of the government's commitment to human rights.
European monitors blamed Sri Lanka's security forces for the killings. The government denied the allegations and blamed the rebels.
University Teachers for Human Rights, a respected local group, issued a 29-page report on Tuesday that claimed to describe the killings of the 17 in the eastern town of Muttur in August 2006, after a fierce battle between troops and rebels.
The slain workers -- all but one of whom were members of the ethnic minority Tamil ethnic group -- were working on tsunami-relief projects at the time.
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