Government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels battled each other Monday with rifles, mortars and artillery across northern Sri Lanka in fighting that killed 42 rebels and six soldiers, the military said, according to AP. In the worst violence, in the Mannar district just south of rebel-held territory, guerrilla fighters attacked soldiers in an offensive aimed at recapturing land the military seized over the weekend, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. The military repelled the attack in a battle that left 35 rebels and six soldiers dead, he said. Soldiers also killed four guerrillas in a pre-dawn clash in the northern Jaffna peninsula, Nanayakkara said. Troops suffered no casualties. Troops killed three rebel fighters in separate fighting in the Vavuniya district, and discovered more than 400 anti-personnel mines in caches in the area, he said. Fighting across northern Sri Lanka _ where the separatist rebels control a de facto state _ has intensified in recent months, following the government's victory over the Tamil Tigers in eastern Sri Lanka in July. Senior officials have said they hope to finally destroy the group. A series of attacks over the weekend killed a total of 56 rebels and six soldiers, the military said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said that large battles had taken place in the north, but that the military's death tolls were inaccurate. He did not provide figures of his own, saying they were not yet available. Each side routinely exaggerates the other's casualty numbers and plays down its own. Independent confirmation was not available because access to the conflict zone was restricted. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan forces defused a package bomb hidden in the garden of a heavily guarded apartment building filled with lawmakers' homes in the capital, Colombo, just days after two bombings blamed on the rebels killed 20 civilians, the military said. The 1.2 kilogram (2.7 pound) explosive _ discovered by a resident _ was presumed to be an assassination attempt on the air force chief, Air Marshall Roshan Goonetilleke, whose house is located nearby, Nanayakkara said.
