Sri Lanka says kills 22 rebels, vows to win war

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops killed 22 Tamil Tigers in the island's far north, the military said on Monday, a day after President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to destroy the rebels and win a 25-year civil war.

The military said two soldiers died in Sunday's clashes in the northern districts of Vavuniya and Polonnaruwa, the latest in near daily battles and air raids.

The military gave no further details on the fighting and the rebels were not immediately available for comment.

The government and rebels trade death toll claims that are rarely possible to independently verify. Nordic truce monitors, who blamed troops and rebels for repeated abuses, were banished by the government after Rajapaksa formally scrapped a 6-year truce in January.

Since then, fighting has escalated.

Rajapaksa on Sunday sought to build on support from the government-dominated south for a war that has isolated Sri Lanka internationally amid allegations of killings and rights abuses by elements of the security forces.

Analysts say Rajapaksa's government and the military have the upper hand in the latest phase of the war given superior air power, strength of numbers and terrain captured in the island's east, but they still see no clear winner on the horizon.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam want an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka. More than 70,000 people have died since the civil war began in 1983.

Since the start of 2006, more than 6,500 rebels, 1,200 military personnel and over 980 civilians have been killed, according to the military.

The Tigers are regularly hitting back with suicide attacks increasingly targeting civilians and roadside bombs, experts and the military say, which in turn are stoking investor worries in the $27 billion economy.