Colombo: At least 120 Tiger rebels and 27 soldiers were killed as Sri Lankan troops intensified their operations to capture the tiger bastion of Kilinochchi, officials said on Monday.
Pitched battles raged as government troops closed in on Kilinochchi from two sides overcoming stiff LTTE resistance to battle their way to the outskirts of the city--known to be the nerve centre of the rebels.
"Twenty-seven soldiers have made ultimate sacrifice of their lives for their motherland. While 70 others suffered injuries during the battle," the defence ministry said.
They claimed that "LTTE had marshalled their final reserves to the battlefront to save their symbolically important stronghold Kilinochchi".
It said that wireless-intercepts of the LTTE indicated that 120 Tigers had been killed and 80 wounded in heavy fighting going on around Kilinochchi for the past thirty-six hours.
Heavy clashes are continuing along the Kilinochchi outskirts since last morning as the Army infantrymen are steadily advancing on to the remaining LTTE defences in the area, defence sources said.
According to reports, Sri Lankan troops are advancing on the Tiger bastion from the South as well as from the North, where they have recently made spectacular gains in wresting two major Tiger towns.
Earlier the pro-LTTE website Tamilnet had reported that Tiger cadres had beaten back a Lankan attack on the Naloor town, which straddles the highway linking Jaffna with Kilinochchi killing 43 soldiers.
The website also claimed that LTTE were in possession of nine slain soldiers, a report which was corroborated by a military spokesman.
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