S.Lanka says kills 38 Tigers, captures rebel area

Sri Lankan troops have captured a section of rebel-held territory in the island's northwest and killed 38 Tamil Tigers, the military said today, as a new chapter in a 25-year civil war intensifies.

"Troops captured a 1 square kilometer area ... in Mannar. Nineteen terrorists were killed and 30 wounded, while one soldier died and five were wounded," a military spokesperson said, asking not to be named in line with policy.

Another 19 rebels were killed the same day in a series of clashes across the north, where fighting is focused, the spokesperson said.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who want to create an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, were not immediately available for comment.

Death toll
Totting up death toll claims by both sides, around 150 people have been reported killed since the government announced last week it was formally scrapping a battered 2002 ceasefire pact.

Analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own. Independent accounts of what has happened are almost never available.

Tuesday's fighting came as suspected Tamil Tiger rebels assassinated a Sri Lankan minister with a roadside bomb between the capital and the island's only international airport, the second MP killed in a week. One of his security detail also died.

Another explosion shook a downtown area of the capital on Tuesday evening, when a bomb planted in a phone booth near the Hilton hotel in Colombo's business district detonated, but there were no casualties.

The government has vowed to wipe out the Tigers militarily, setting the stage for what many fear will be a bloody battle for the north as a death toll of around 70 000 people since the war erupted in 1983 climbs daily. - Reuters