Scores killed in Sri Lanka fighting
Updated on 14 July 2008
Fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tigers has left 62 rebels and one government soldier dead.
The fighting took place as troops advanced into Tamil Tiger rebel-held areas in the far north of the south Asian country.
The Sri Lankan government is pursing a strategy to gradually retake the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) northern stronghold and win the 25-year old civil war.
"Troops killed 62 LTTE terrorists in fighting since Friday and one soldier also died," a military spokesman said.
The military said troops captured two areas in the northern district of Vavuniya and inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels.
The air force said fighter jet planes bombed a "row of terrorists' bunkers" and a rebel equipment storage area in the north.
"The air strikes hit the targets," said air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara.
The rebels said in an emailed statement that a 20-year-old female student was injured in the aerial attack and admitted to hospital.
They also said indiscriminate government artillery fire damaged a school, other buildings and civilian houses.
The LTTE is fighting to create an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka for ethnic Tamils, a minority in the predominantly Sinhalese country.
Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of the long-running war given superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island's east, though they still see no clear winner on the horizon.
An estimated 70,000 people have died on both sides since the civil war began in 1983.
The Tigers regularly retaliate with suicide attacks increasingly targeting civilians and roadside bombs, experts and the military say.
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