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Troops kill 15 Tamil rebels |
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April 15, 2000
COLOMBO, APR 14 (AP) - Government troops killed 18 Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka as the guerrillas in counter attacks killed one soldier and wounded 54, the defense ministry said Friday.
The rebels exploded a land mine Friday near the northern military controlled town of Vavuniya wounding 15 soldiers, who were returning from a search operation, a ministry statement said. Vavuniya is 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital, Colombo.
Earlier in the day, six police personnel were wounded when suspected rebels exploded another land mine in the east, a police officer said. The remote controlled mine exploded in Vellavelli, a town 210 kilometers (125 miles) east of Colombo. Details of the incident were not immediately known.
A navy patrol sank a rebel boat Thursday off the eastern port city of Trincomalee, near Vellavelli, killing three rebels, a Defense Ministry statement said.
Sri Lanka's 17-year-old civil war is mostly fought in the north, but the rebels often carry out attacks in other parts of the island.
Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Ranjith Witana said 15 rebel fatalities occurred in three separate battles in the north Thursday.Government troops had attacked rebel positions.
In retaliatory attacks, the rebels killed one soldier and wounded 33 others, Witana said.
The rebels want to carve out an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east. The war has left over 62,000 people dead on both sides.
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