Sri Lanka’s air force bombed and destroyed a Tamil separatist training camp in the island’s north, while battles along the northern front lines left 21 rebels and five soldiers dead, the military said yesterday.
Fighter jets destroyed the Tamil Tiger rebel camp on the Jaffna peninsula in the morning atttack, air force spokesman Wing Commander Andy Wijesuriya said.
Wijesuriya said he did not have details of how many people were in the camp at the time of the airstrike and could not say if there were any casualties.
On Thursday, government troops clashed with Tamil guerrillas in Vavuniya district, just south of the rebels’ de facto state in the north, a defense ministry official said.
Fourteen rebels died in the fighting and eight soldiers were wounded, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Separate violence in Jaffna, Mannar and Welioya districts left seven rebels and five soldiers dead on Thursday, he said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment.
It was not possible to independently verify the military’s claims because journalists are banned from the war zone. The government and rebels often exaggerate the other side’s casualties and underreport their own.
Reports of fighting have increased in recent months amid government promises to capture the rebels’ de facto state in the north and crush the group by the end of the year. But diplomats and other observers say the army is facing more resistance than it had expected.
The rebels have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized for decades by successive governments run by majority ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
Meanwhile, fighting was raging near the Catholic pilgrimage area of Madhu in the northwestern coastal district of Mannar, reports by the rebels and the security forces said.
Priests there have moved the highly venerated statue of Mary from the church fearing that it could be hit in the crossfire, church authorities said.
“Today, the historic shrine itself has to seek refuge. I have told the remaining priests to withdraw from the church area in view of the fighting,” Rayappu Joseph, the bishop of Mannar, said by telephone.
The latest defense ministry casualty toll brings to at least 2,616 the number of rebels said to have been killed by security forces since January.
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