The defense ministry announced on Tuesday that six government soldiers were killed by a Tamil Tiger mortar fire and at least 48 rebels died in series of clashes in the northern Sri Lanka.

The fighting began yesterday on the Jaffna peninsula as a part of government’s plan to eliminate the rebels out of their strongholds.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could not comment upon the situation and is known that both sides do tend to exaggerate when it comes to theirs and the opponent’s casualties.

According to a spokesman for the defense ministry, allegedly there were 48 rebels killed and 28 injured in “heavy confrontations” yesterday.

The rebel website said that the troops launched the attack from camps in Mannaar district against the territories occupied by the rebels after the Tamil Tigers carried an artillery attack, Reuters reports.  

The defense ministry says that until now over 1,100 rebels have been killed and 80 soldiers have died since the beginning of the year.

The fighting has intensified since last month the government dropped the six-year ceasefire. The government is thinking that the truce was an excuse used by the rebels to re-arm.  

The LTTE are saying that they are fighting for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil population, who they say is being persecuted by the majority Buddhist Sinhalese. About 20 percent of the 20 million people in Sri Lanka are Tamil.

Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka, who is the survivor of a suicide bomb which occurred 18 months ago, is known to be the maker of the recent victories of the government troops, the Guardian Unlimited informs. .

He announced that the troops will kill at least 10 Tamil rebels a day and now he says that he doubled that number and by the end of this year will wipe out the rebels.

The government says that the number of rebels has been reduced to less than 5,000.

Ever since the Tigers started a campaign in 1972 to form an independent state in the north and east of the country, almost 70,000 people have died.