Colombo, Sep 3 (IANS) At least 47 Tamil Tigers and six soldiers were killed while seven soldiers were reported missing as heavy fighting raged Tuesday in Sri Lanka’s north, the authorities said Wednesday. The Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) claimed that at least 22 fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and six soldiers were killed in the rebel-held Kilinochchi region.

Thirty-one rebels and 48 soldiers were also wounded in the fighting.

“The LTTE forward defence line in Akkarayankulam and Terrankandal was captured by troops Tuesday. The terrorists have launched a counter attack to regain the lost bunker line,” the MCNS report said.

Claiming that soldiers were missing in these clashes, it said the troops had recovered two bodies of two LTTE fighters along with their assault riffles and a few mortar bombs.

The military Tuesday claimed that its troops had captured Mallavi, a “strategic bastion” of the LTTE after inflicting heavy casualties on the rebels.

Meanwhile, a pro-LTTE website quoting rebel sources reported that the guerrillas had put up heavy resistance against troops advancing towards Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s administrative hub, killing 75 soldiers and wounding 100 Tuesday.

Tamilnet.com claimed Wednesday that the rebels confronted the troops at Nachchikkuda, a village located along the northwestern coast of the island and killed 45 soldiers and wounded 51.

Another 30 soldiers were killed in separate clashes elsewhere in the north Tuesday, the report said, claiming that the rebels recovered the bodies of 17 soldiers. It did not give details of LTTE casualties.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara rejected the latest claims by the rebels as “absolutely untrue and baseless”.

“Only six soldiers were killed and seven are missing in action on Tuesday. There is no truth in what LTTE is saying,” Nanayakkara told IANS.