COLOMBO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan military said on Saturday its troops had killed 38 Tamil Tiger rebels and one of its soldiers had died in fresh fighting in the north. A six-year truce between the state and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formally ended on Wednesday, opening the way for a military push for the Tigers' northern stronghold and a bloody escalation in a 25-year civil war, analysts say. "In Welioya troops confronted with a group of terrorists and killed two today (Saturday). Confrontations on Friday killed 36 LTTE terrorists in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Welioya and Mannar and destroyed four LTTE bunkers," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. On Wednesday 27 people were killed in a bus ambush in the central town of Buttala which the military blamed on the Tigers. On Friday suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot and killed 10 people in southern Sri Lanka, the military said. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the fighting. There were no independent accounts of casualties. The Sri Lankan government scrapped the 2002 truce a fortnight ago. The military said more than 40 civilians, 23 soldiers and over 200 rebels had been killed in fighting since then. About 70,000 people have been killed since the war erupted in 1983. (Reporting by by Ranga Sirilal; editing by Andrew Roche)
Sri Lankan relatives of victims of Wednesday's bus ambush by Tamil Tiger rebels attend a religious ceremony near the coffins, during the funeral in Buttala, some 135 km from Colombo, January ...
