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Colombo: Sri Lankan soldiers launched a pre-dawn attack on Tamil separatists in the embattled north on Wednesday, triggering a battle that killed 13 rebels and one soldier, while fighter planes bombed a separate guerrilla base, the military said.
Troops pushed into Tamil Tiger rebel-held territory and seized took control of Kalaiadachchan village in Mannar district, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Twelve other soldiers were wounded in the fighting.
Separately, air force jets pounded a Tamil rebel base in the northern rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu, Nanayakkara said. He gave no details of casualties or damage, but said pilots confirmed the assault was successful.
The battles and air attacks were part of a heavy escalation in fighting in the country's civil war in recent months. The government has vowed to crush the rebels by the end of the year, but diplomats and other observers say the army is facing more resistance than it expected.
Meanwhile, scattered fighting across the north on Tuesday killed 51 rebels and two soldiers, the military said.
On the same day, a human rights group blamed Sri Lankan security forces for the massacre of 17 aid workers 20 months ago, saying police and paramilitary forces shot the victims as they knelt on the ground and begged for their lives.
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