Sri Lankan soldiers fought a series of battles with Tamil Tiger rebels across the country's embattled north, inflicting “severe damage” on the guerrillas, the military claimed on Monday. Government troops have made dramatic progress in recent months, seizing rebel bases and chunks of land, but the rebels have offered stiff resistance as the soldiers close in on their administrative capital, Kilinochchi. The latest clashes raged through Sunday along the front lines separating government-controlled territory and the rebels' de facto state in the north, the military said in a statement. In one battle, soldiers attacked a gathering of rebels in Palleikulam village in Kilinochchi, it said. Three more clashes were reported in Kilinochchi, while scattered battles continued in Jaffna and Mullaitivu districts in the north, the military said. It did not provide casualty details in line with a new government policy, but said troops inflicted “severe damage” on the rebels. In another incident on Sunday, Tamil rebels fatally shot four civilians in the eastern Batticaloa district, a separate military statement said. Rebel spokesmen could not be reached for comment because most communication lines to guerrilla territory had been severed. The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
