COLOMBO, Sept 22: Sri Lanka’s military battled towards the Tamil Tigers’ headquarters in the north of the island and killed 59 insurgents, the military said on Monday.

Eight soldiers also died in Sunday’s fighting, which followed two days of clashes last week that were among the bloodiest since the military ratcheted up its advance against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) three months ago.

“Troops killed 59 LTTE terrorists and 31 were wounded in Sunday’s fighting,” a military spokesman said. “Eight soldiers also died and 28 were wounded from the fighting.”

The rebels could not be reached for comment, and independently verifying the figures is difficult because the military bars most journalists from the battle zones. Both sides routinely inflate losses and victories to their advantage.

The air force also kept up a series of air strikes with attack helicopters and jets, including four sorties on Sunday that struck various Tiger gathering points, the military said without giving details of casualties.

On Friday and Saturday, 53 rebels and five soldiers were killed in fighting at various places along a jagged frontline that stretches from coast-to-coast. That followed two of the bloodiest days in months in which more than 130 people were killed.

The military has said it is within 5.5km of the LTTE’s headquarters town of Kilinochchi, 330km north of Colombo.

Seizing that town would be a strategic and symbolic victory for President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government, which in January officially threw out a ceasefire both sides had ignored and vowed to wipe out the LTTE and end a war raging since 1983.

Pro-rebel website www.tamilnet.com said heavy fighting erupted along the southwest frontiers of Kilinochchi district on Sunday with heavy artillery fire but gave no other details.

The Tigers are on US, EU and Indian terrorism lists and have fought for more than three decades to establish a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamils.

They have in the process silenced more moderate Tamil political voices.—Reuters