At least 17 killed in Sri Lanka clashes

Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan troops battled overnight for territory in a volatile eastern district, leaving at least eight rebels and four soldiers dead.

A separate clash in the North killed at least five rebels.

Air force fighter jets strafed two rebel positions to assist soldiers on the ground as fierce fighting continued today, said air force spokesman Capt. Ajantha Silva in the capital, Colombo.

“The air force has taken two targets to help our ground forces,” said Silva.

The battle came a day after the UN warned it was running out of food for tens of thousands of refugees in eastern Batticaloa district, where most of the violence is taking place.

Gunfights were ongoing near a strategic bridge about 20 miles from Batticaloa, said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.

“The terrorists mounted a severe attack on our camps in Batticaloa district soon after midnight,” Samarasinghe said.

About 30 rebels were killed in the fighting, but the military recovered the bodies of only eight guerrillas, including one woman, he said. The others were likely taken by retreating rebels, he added.

Four soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded, two seriously, Samarasinghe said, after the clashes around Batticaloa, about 130 miles east of Colombo.

Separately today, army troops killed five rebels in an overnight clash when insurgents attempted to infiltrate a defence line in northern Jaffna peninsula, Samarasinghe said.