There were sporadic confrontations and the military said 35 Tiger fighters were killed as well as two soldiers.

But some have doubts about the casualties being reported.

"If you add up all the figures given by the government from the beginning of the separatist war until now, it would have wiped out the population of the north twice over," says Iqbal Athas, consultant editor and defence correspondent of the Colombo Sunday Times and correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly.

"Similarly if one were to adopt the figures put out by the Tamil Tiger rebels, that would have depleted the ranks of the military considerably." More... Discuss this story Published: Thu Mar 20 23:48:38 EDT 2008

A US State Department report issued on March 11 said that in 2007, "The government's respect for human rights continued to decline."

It then cited "numerous reports" that the army, police, and pro-government paramilitary groups had "participated in armed attacks against civilians and practiced torture, kidnapping, hostage-taking, and extortion with impunity."

Since the 1980s, the conflict between the government and the LTTE, who are fighting for a separate Tamil homeland on the island, has left some 70,000 dead. The fear among many Tamils is that their community is now being targeted by the authorities as part of a 'dirty war' against the LTTE.

Officials in Colombo, however, counter that those alleging government responsibility for violations are ignoring atrocities committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the rebel group fighting against government forces.

They have also rejected the US report for throwing "a lifeline to the LTTE", a group classified as 'terrorist' by the US and the European Union. More...Discuss this story Published: Thu Mar 20 15:58:18 EDT 2008

Clashes in which 24 rebels were killed were reported Wednesday in northern Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya districts in the north, the military said in a statement.

Also Wednesday, a police commando was killed in a firefight with rebels in Ampara district in the east, the military said.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan's could not be reached for comment.

Each side often exaggerates the other's casualty figures while playing down its own. It was not possible to independently confirm the accounts because reporters have been barred from the war zone.

Government troops have opened up four fronts around the rebels' de facto state in the north after taking control of their eastern strongholds last year. However, the rebels still operate in smaller groups in the east and ambush government forces.

Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the island's ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.Discuss this story Published: Thu Mar 20 06:45:08 EDT 2008