Sri Lanka

Tamil Tigers claim 60 soldiers killed, admit pressure on Kilinochchi

Article published on the 2008-12-21 Latest update 2008-12-21 15:47 TU

Government soldiers fighting on the Jaffna peninsula
(Photo: AFP)

Tamil separatist guerrillas in Sri Lanka claim to have killed 60 soldiers in fighting near the key town of Kilinochchi this weekend. The government side has not confirmed the losses and says that it deployed helicopter gunships and captured the small town of Nedunkerni on Sunday.

In a statement on the Tamilnet website, representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said that 60 government soldiers were killed and 150 wounded on Saturday.

They gave no details of their own casualties.

The Defence Ministry rejected the claim, putting army losses at 13 with 40 wounded and adding that the LTTE had suffered "heavy damages".

Both sides regularly issue widely varying casualty estimates and journalists are banned from the conflict zone.

Correspondent Amal Jayasinghe says that the LTTE claim constitutes an unprecedented admission that they are under pressure in Kilinochchi.

"By saying that  they have pushed back security forces two kilometres they have in a way admitted that the security forces are quite close to their political headquarters," he told RFI, adding that the LTTE appear to be surrounded from at least three directions