Government troops captured a Tamil Tiger rebel-held town in war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka on Friday and a key Tiger supply base on Thursday, while infantry clashes across the region killed dozens, the military said yesterday.
Fighting has escalated in this Indian Ocean island in recent months as government forces try to fulfill a pledge to crush the insurgents by the end of this year.
In the latest fighting, army troops took control of Andankulam town in Mannar after a battle that killed 28 rebels and one soldier Friday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The town’s capture came a day after the troops seized a key supply base in Vavuniya District that had been used to replenish the Tamil Tigers’ front-line troops.
Nanayakkara said the capture of the base and town were strategically important for government troops to gain control of rebels’ northern strongholds.
Other battles on Friday killed 12 rebels and one soldier in the Welioya region, while in the northern Jaffna peninsula a soldier died in a roadside bomb blast blamed on rebels, Nanayakkara said.
The military says fighting over the past week has killed 220 rebels and 22 soldiers. Analysts accuse both sides of exaggerating enemy losses and underreporting their own casualties.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not immediately available for comment.
It was not possible to independently verify the military’s claims because journalists are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place.
The Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils.
The government vows to capture rebel-held territory and to crush the insurgents by next year but diplomats and other observers say the army has faced more resistance than expected.
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