Sri Lanka kills 115 Tigers

COLOMBO (Agencies) - Sri Lankan defence forces today foiled an LTTE sea attack and sank two rebel boats, as they advanced deeper into the fast-shrinking rebel territory, capturing an embankment and killing at least 80 militants, including 14 Sea Tigers in the embattled north.
At least 80 Tiger rebels, including 14 sea Tigers, were killed as troops advanced forward to capture the remaining Tiger held areas around the newly demarcated 'safety zone for civilians, the Defence Ministry said.In ground operations, the Army broke into LTTEs mud embankment in Karayamulliavaikkal in Mullaitivu amid stiff resistance from the rebels, 35 of whom were found dead following the operation yesterday.
Another 31 LTTE cadres were killed during clashes at Wellamullavaikkal, Udayark-attukulam and Vavunavillu in Mullaitivu, the military said.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Navy destroyed two LTTE attack boats and captured two others in seas off Wellamullavaikkal, leaving all 14 Sea Tigers on board dead, the Navy said.
The Navy destroyed one LTTE sea Tiger suicide boat and another sea vessel after a well-fortified naval cordon was attacked by the Tiger rebels in the seas off Mullaitivu this morning, the Navy said, adding it has captured another LTTE suicide boat with an attack craft.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan troops killed at least 35 Tamil Tiger rebels during heavy clashes just outside the newly demarcated safety zone for war-trapped civilians, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
Security forces who captured a mud embankment built by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday moved deeper into the remaining territory held by the guerrillas amid stiff resistance, the ministry said.
In subsequent search operation conducted in the area, troops have found 35 bodies of LTTE terrorists killed in fighting along with LTTE military hardware, the ministry said in a statement.
It did not give military casualties, but the latest report came as the government reduced the size of the safe zone for civilians trapped by the fighting.
The government estimates that up to 20,000 civilians are being held by the LTTE as human shields. The United Nations has said the number could be as high as 50,000.
A military official said Tiger rebels had on Friday shot and killed a man who tried to escape. Another 12 civilians were wounded, but managed to reach a military post and receive medical attention, the official said.
Military spokesman brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the civilian safe zone was made smaller as fighting was raging on the outskirts.
The guerrillas have been confined to a five-square-kilometre area in the district of Mullaittivu and only three square kilometres of that would be the new safe zone, Nanayakkara said.
The new civilian safe zone is an area which is two kilometres long and 1.5 km wide, he said.
The government has said its forces will not fire into the safe zone. However, the rebels have given no such assurances. Before the total collapse of a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in January 2008, the LTTE controlled most of the north and ran their own mini-state.
Sri Lankas President Mahinda Rajapakse said on Thursday that the long-running war against the rebels, which dates back to the 1970s, was rapidly nearing its end. It has claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides.