COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Tamil Tigers killed 51 Sri Lankan soldiers in fierce fighting in the island's north, a pro-rebel Web site reported Saturday. The military denied dozens of troops died and said 20 insurgents were killed.
About 150 soldiers were also wounded in clashes near Dharmapuram village in the Tamil-dominated north after the military launched an offensive Friday, TamilNet quoted the rebels' media unit as saying.
However, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said 20 rebels and seven soldiers were killed in the clashes.
It was not possible to verify the battle details and the two sides are known to exaggerate casualties suffered by each other while downplaying their own losses.
Government troops recently captured Kilinochchi, the capital of the rebels' de facto state and the northern Jaffna peninsula -- the cultural centre of the country's ethnic minority Tamils.
On Saturday, soldiers captured the rebel-held Ramanathapuram village -- which lies east of Kilinochchi -- while the air force bombed a defense line in the remaining rebel-held district of Mullaittivu, the military said. No casualty details were given.
Facing intense pressure from advancing government troops, the rebels are now squeezed into a dwindling territory in the northeast.
Authorities say they will crush the rebels and retake their remaining territory in months.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa met Saturday with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon outside the capital of Colombo for a second day of talks on ways to ensure a lasting peace in the civil war. The conflict is of special concern to India, which is home to some 56 million Tamils.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization by successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
