Military: 64 killed in Sri Lanka clash
By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI

Colombo, Sri Lanka - Sixty four combatants have been killed in the latest clashes between the government soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels in eastern Sri Lanka, military said on Monday.

An officer at the government's Media Center for National Security said 24 soldiers were killed and 69 wounded in Sunday's artillery and mortar battle with the insurgents in the eastern Batticaloa district.

Forty rebels were also killed in the clash, the officer said speaking on condition of anonymity due to policy.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said however at least seven rebel fighters died in the clashes.

The military said on Sunday guerrillas mounted artillery attacks on four army locations in eastern Batticaloa district, prompting soldiers to launch retaliatory attack.

Sunday's fighting came a day after thousands of ethnic Sinhalese fled from their homes following a fierce artillery exchange in neighboring Trincomalee district.

Tamil Tigers in an e-mail statement said 19 civilians were killed by army artillery fire Sunday, a day after 22 Tamil civilians reportedly died from military shelling.

The military, however, accused the Tigers of holding Tamil civilians as human shields.

Independent verification of the incidents was not possible because reporters and aid workers are not allowed into the area.

After a fierce battle in Trincomalee district on Saturday, least 3,000 Sinhalese civilians from 750 families took shelter in two Buddhist temples and two schools in Kantale village, some 18 miles southwest of Trincomalee town, said Sirimevan Dharmasena, the chief government bureaucrat in Kantale.

Maj. Upali Rajapakse said five civilians died and 16 more were wounded by shells fired from rebel areas into ethnic Sinhalese villages in Trincomalee, prompting civilians to leave their homes.

Civilian casualties have mounted in recent clashes between government troops and the guerrillas while both sides have denied responsibility.

The Tigers have been fighting for more than 20 years for a separate homeland for the island nation's 3.1 million ethnic Tamil minority, citing decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

The government says it is willing to give autonomy to areas where Tamils are in the majority in the north and northeast, but the rebels want sweeping changes that the government says will infringe on the country's sovereignty. -- The Associated Press

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