(Updates with Military comments and details) COLOMBO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military has taken the Silavathura area in the northwestern district of Mannar, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Sunday, a day after the military launched a new offensive to drive out Tamil Tiger rebels. The rebels, meanwhile, said the death toll from a claymore set by the military in the area had risen to nine. The offensive came days after Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the country had no plans for a major operation on rebel-held territory in the country's north. The clashes in Mannar are the latest in a spate of land and sea clashes, ambushes and air raids between the armed forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. "The security forces had liberated the Silavathura as they have liberated (the) east," said President Rajapaksa referring to military recent operation which evicted Tamil Tiger rebels from restive east. Military Spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the military was consolidating positions in the captured areas and had also taken a rebel naval base. An estimated 5,000 people have died since last year in renewed fighting after a peace process collapsed. The civil war erupted in 1983 and about 70,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands displaced. The Tigers, fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment on the offensive, but said the death toll from a claymore mine had risen to nine civilians. The military denied that any of its units had detonated a claymore targeting civilians.
