Dozens Die in Sri Lanka Fighting

Heavy fighting in northern Sri Lanka has left at least 10 government soldiers and 48 rebel fighters dead, defence officials said.

Clashes between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern Jaffna peninsula, Vavuniya, Polonnaruwa and Mannar also left more than 30 soldiers wounded, a military spokesman said.

"Forty-eight LTTE terrorists were killed and 28 wounded on Monday in heavy confrontations," a the government spokesman said.
 
The military said it had killed at least 80 Tamil Tiger separatists in the north of the country alone this weekend.
    
The Sri Lankan government officially pulled out of a defunct truce with the rebels last month.
 
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for more than three decades for an independent ethnic homeland in the Sinhalese-majority island.