5 Tiger Rebels Killed in Clash with Govt Troops in North S. LankaThe Sri Lankan government forces killed another five separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country on Monday, the defense ministry said on Tuesday.Government forces clashed with a group of rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Nagarkovil on Monday evening and killed five of them, the ministry said. The fresh clash came after the military killed six Tiger rebels in the same area on Saturday. The Tiger rebels also fired a barrage of artillery towards army positions at Ariyalai on Monday but there were no casualties to government forces, the ministry said. The LTTE began their unilateral ceasefire on Christmas Eve last year which they have extended until March 24 and asked the government to reciprocate their truce offer. However, the government has maintained that a reciprocal ceasefire is possible only after talks between the two sides made substantive progress. The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 in the north and east of the country for a separate Tamil state. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the bloody war. |
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