True figures: Sri Lanka lost 185 soldiers in Jaffna battle - AFP quotes military sources

COLOMBO (AFP) — At least 165 government soldiers were killed and 20 more went missing in a major battle against Tamil rebels this week, military sources told AFP on Friday.

The figures were far higher than official defence ministry casualties which gave 43 soldiers dead and 33 missing from Wednesday’s fighting in the north.

“Some of the senior officers have been told that the army lost 185, including 20 who are still listed as missing,” said a military source who declined to be named. “We are trying to establish the fate of the missing.”

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday returned the bodies of 28 soldiers they had captured.

The government also reported killing more than 100 rebels in the pre-dawn offensive along the Muhamalai front lines on the northern Jaffna peninsula.

However, the separatists, who have been fighting for a Tamil homeland since 1972, said they lost only 25 combatants.

Official defence ministry casualty tolls and LTTE figures can seldom be verified because the government prevents journalists from visiting war zones and territory held by the rebels.

Wednesday’s confrontation was the bloodiest in recent years and the biggest battle since the military withdrew from a Norwegian-arranged truce in January this year.

(AFP)