COLOMBO: Sri Lanka said on Wednesday that 100 of its soldiers were killed and a further 800 wounded fighting the Tamil Tigers last month, showing the escalating conflict is bloodier than previously announced.

The casualty figures were given in a statement to the national parliament by Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, and were sharply higher than those released by the island’s hawkish defence ministry.

“The number of security personnel killed last month was 104, while another 822 soldiers and police were wounded,” de Silva said, adding that 80 civilians were killed and 201 wounded in February.

Defence ministry tallies, however, have listed only 63 soldiers lost in action last month, which saw government troops step up an offensive against the rebel-held north after authorities pulled out of a truce with the Tigers.

The health minister did not give an estimate of rebel casualties, although the defence ministry has said 871 Tigers were killed in February.

Since the start of the year, the ministry has claimed security forces have killed at least 1,837 rebels while 107 government soldiers have been slain in the conflict.

No independent confirmation of the figures has been available since journalists and rights workers are barred from frontline areas.

The new figures came as heavy fighting continued in the north.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are battling to carve out a separate ethnic homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka, said four civilians were killed in an alleged military ambush late on Tuesday in Mannar district.

The Tigers regularly accuse the Sri Lankan military of sending “deep penetration units” — or small groups of commandos — into the rebel-held north. Government defence officials refuse to discuss such operations.

The rebels usually follow their allegations of civilian casualties in their mini-state with retaliatory strikes elsewhere in the country.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry said two policemen were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the north on Wednesday, blaming the Tigers for the blast.

The ministry also claimed another 14 rebels and two soldiers were killed in clashes in the north on Tuesday.—AFP

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