Sri Lanka says kills 15 rebels in latest fighting
(Adds fresh fighting in south)
COLOMBO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops killed 15 Tamil Tiger rebels in an assault on rebel positions in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Monday, the military said, taking the rebel death toll from three days of clashes to 89.
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels also killed three police personnel in southern Sri Lanka.
The rebels were not immediately available for comment and there are no independent accounts of the battles that have escalated following the formal abrogation of a six-year truce by the government last week.
"The Army launched an attack and completely destroyed 24 LTTE terrorist bunkers, killed 15 and injured 30 terrorists in Nagarkovil area in Jaffna today morning," said a spokesman at the media centre for national security, asking not to be named.
Two soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the fighting, he said, the latest in a series of battles along a "border" that separates government territory from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) de facto state in the north.
The raid on the bunkers followed fighting over the weekend in Jaffna, the northern district of Vavuniya and northwestern district of Mannar in which 74 rebels were killed, according to a compilation of the figures provided by the military.
A local commander was among the rebels dead, the government said.
The end of the ceasefire has opened the way for a military push for the Tigers' northern stronghold and a bloody escalation in the 25-year civil war, analysts say.
The government says the rebels, fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east, used the truce to regroup and rearm. Nordic truce monitors blame both the rebels and the military of repeatedly violating the terms of the ceasefire.
The military also said suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot and killed three police officers in Thanamalwila in the southern district of Monaragala, days after 27 people were killed in a bus ambush in a nearby town blamed on rebels.
"The police post in Kithulkotey area in Thanamalwila came under attack. Due to the confrontation three police officers were killed," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.
About 70,000 people have been killed since the war erupted in 1983. (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; editing by Myra MacDonald)
