Eight Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in fights in the north of Sri Lanka on Thursday and two village guards were the victims of a roadside bomb blast, a military reported on Friday.

According to a defense ministry official the government troops clashed with the rebels in the Thampane village in Vavuniya district killing four insurgents. In the incident four soldiers suffered injuries.

Another clash between the troops and the rebels happened in Umerasakulam, the Mannar district where three of the Tamil rebels were killed and one soldier was injured, the International Herald Tribune reports.

One rebel was killed in a separate incident that occurred in Nawathkuklam, in Vavuniya in a gunfire exchange with the government troops.

In the last weeks clashes intensified in the north part of the island along the front lines that separate the territories controlled by the government from the ones of the rebels.

The spokesman also said that two village guards were killed on Friday when a bomb exploded on the road as the two were returning home after duty in the Padaviya village, in northern Anuradhapura district. The bomb is suspected to have been set off by Tamil insurgents.

The guards are picked from ethnic Sinhalese villages that are at the border with the rebel areas in the north of the island, in order to protect their villages against rebel attacks.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not available for comment.

No independent confirmation has been made regarding the number of victims.

These clashes come a day after the major battle that took place on Jaffna peninsula in which, according to the military, 60 rebels were killed. The rebels are saying that 20 soldiers were killed and other 100 injured and that just one of theirs was killed, Reuters reports.

The war has made 70,000 victims since it broke out, in 1983.