Sri Lanka says 145 killed in northern fighting

A bloody day of fighting near a northern Tamil rebel stronghold left 145 combatants dead Tuesday, Sri Lanka's military said. The guerrillas said government forces retreated after suffering heavy losses in nine hours of fighting. Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said clashes broke out in the northern Jaffna peninsula, as well as in areas to the north, west and south of the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital of Kilinochchi. Soldiers marched into rebel-held Kilali and Muhamalai villages in Jaffna early Tuesday, attacked the guerrilla's positions then returned to their bases, Nayakkara said. He said troops also fought insurgents close to three villages along the main highway connecting Jaffna to the rest of the country–from Paranthan just north of Kilinochchi to Iranamadu some six miles (10 kilometers) to the south. Nanayakarra said about 120 rebels and 25 soldiers were killed in the clashes and 10 more soldiers were missing. The Tamil Tiger rebels could not be contacted for comment because communication lines to their territory have been severed, but the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site said insurgents killed 40 soldiers and wounded 120 more in Kilali alone. It said rebel fighters forced the government troops to retreat after a nine-hour battle. It did not report any rebel losses or details of the other clashes. Military spokesman Nanayakkara said the TamilNet report exaggerated the soldiers' death toll. Journalists are barred from the war zone, making it difficult to verify battlefield reports released by either side. The government has vowed to crush the rebels and end their decades-old separatist campaign. Government troops have made rapid progress in recent months, seizing large chunks of rebel-held territory and forcing the insurgents into a dwindling territory in the northeast. However, the rebels have offered stiff resistance for nearly two months at the edge of Kilinochchi despite the government earlier predicting the town's "imminent fall." The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils who have suffered marginalization by successive governments controlled by the majority ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.