Government forces pounded rebel defenses with airstrikes and ground assaults as heavy fighting across northern Sri Lanka killed 49 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven soldiers, the military said Wednesday.
The new fighting came as soldiers closed in on the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi in a campaign aimed at routing the guerrillas and ending a 25-year-old war that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Out of the newly reported battles, the worst took place Tuesday in Kilinochchi where 39 rebels and six soldiers died, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The army has said its forces are about 1 mile from the outskirts of Kilinochchi.
Scattered battles in Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu killed 10 rebels and a soldier Tuesday, Nanayakkara said.
On Wednesday, air force jets bombed a group of rebels who were building an earthen embankment as a defense against advancing government forces in Mullaitivu, said air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara.
He said the attacks were successful, but details of damage and casualties were not immediately available.
With nearly all communications to the north severed, a rebel spokesman could not be contacted for comment.
Independent verification of the military's claims is nearly impossible because most journalists are banned from the war zone. Both sides routinely exaggerate enemy losses and underreport their own.
Fighting has escalated in recent months, with the military capturing a series of rebel bases and large chunks of territory. Officials have pledged to crush the guerrillas by the end of the year.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced marginalization by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese.
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