Scattered battles killed seven Tamil Tiger separatist rebels and one government soldier along Sri Lanka's northern front lines, the military said Saturday. Separately, the guerrillas said 16 civilians were killed Friday in a roadside bomb attack carried out by government forces deep inside Tamil Tiger territory. Army troops launched two separate attacks along the front lines in the Jaffna peninsula and destroyed 13 rebel bunkers Friday, a defense ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of government policy. He did not give casualty figures. Other fighting in the Vavuniya and Mannar regions bordering the rebels' de facto state in the north killed seven rebels and one soldier Friday, he said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not available for comment. It was not possible to independently verify the military's claims because media are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place. Each side commonly exaggerates the other's casualties while playing down its own. The rebels said Friday that elite government forces planted a bomb that killed 16 civilians, including children, in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi. The military denied involvement. A government airstrike elsewhere in Kilinochchi killed an infant and a teenage girl Friday, the rebels said. Air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said fighter jets bombed a rebel gathering area and a beach where they concealed their boats, but denied that any airstrikes targeted civilian areas. The government has pledged to capture the rebel-held territory and crush the insurgents by the end of the year. Diplomats and other observers say, however, that the army has faced more resistance than expected.
