The military in Sri Lanka said Tuesday around 30 rebels and 5 soldiers were killed in the confrontations between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in the north in the last two days.

Officials from the Media Centre for National Security said four Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were killed and three others injured in an attack launched by the troops at Cinnaodaippadu in the Mannar district around 2 A.M. local time ( 2030 GMT) on Tuesday.

On Monday, twenty-six rebels were killed in a clash between the two sides when the rebels tried to recapture a position which was occupied by the troops earlier at Pultyankulam in the Mannar district, officials said, adding that most of the rebels being killed were female.

One soldier was killed and 13 others injured in the battle.

Also in Mannar, four soldiers were killed and two others injured in another battle at Karakkuaulam around 2 P.M. (0830 GMT) on Monday.

Sri Lanka's troops are currently engaging the rebels in the Northern Province after they claimed in July last year that the entire Eastern Province had been free of LTTE rebels.

The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2008)