According to official reports, dozens of lives were claimed today in fighting between official troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The army said it had lost six of its soldiers and killed 39 rebels during the clashes in the north of the country. 

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, military spokesman, said that in the Mannar district rebels attacked soldiers in an attempt to regain the land in south of Adampan that was seized by the military over the weekend.

The troops fought back thus killing 35 rebels and losing six soldiers.

He said: "The LTTE attacked the troops at positions we captured last Saturday in South of Adampan. We have successfully repulsed the attack and retaliated,” Reuters quotes.

Other four rebels were killed in Muhamalai, in a separate clash. Muhamalai stands on a border, which is heavily defended and separates the territory held by the rebels from the one held by the government in the Jaffna peninsula.

In the Vavuniya district the army discovered over 400 anti-personnel mines in caches, the Guardian Unlimited reports.

The army said over the weekend 64 Tigers and six soldiers were killed in the fighting in the Jaffna peninsula.

According to Rasiah Ilanthirayan, a rebel spokesman, the large clashes occurred in the north.

The Sri Lanka’s government pledged to get rid of the Tiger rebels and is seeking a way to throw them out of Mannar, after evicting them earlier this year from areas in the east.

Since the fighting between the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels began in 2006, over 5,000 people were killed. Almost 70,000 people were killed since the war erupted in 1983.

According to military analysts, there is no clear winner on the horizon, and there are fears that the war could go on for years.