The Sri Lankan military and sources close to Tamil Tiger rebels reported scores of deaths among each other's forces in battles in the north of the island today.
The fighting was the latest in a new chapter of the 25-year-old civil war, as the military tries to overrun the separatist Tigers' northern stronghold and the two sides exchange heavy artillery fire.
Government forces said rebel artillery killed six Sri Lankan soldiers today while government troops killed 48 rebels.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were not available for comment and analysts say both sides tend to inflate enemy casualty figures in the absence of independent accounts of the fighting.
But the pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com said the Tigers had killed 42 soldiers when they returned fire after government troops fired artillery from camps in Mannar district towards Tamil Tiger-held territories.
The Web site said more than 53 soldiers were wounded. The military denied the rebel claim.
"Nothing like that. Only six soldiers were killed when the LTTE fired artillery at a church in Thalladi in Mannar, and we didn't lose any other soldiers today," said spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.
Fighting between the military and the LTTE has intensified since the government abandoned a six-year-old ceasefire pact last month. The government says the rebels had used the truce to re-arm.
Buoyed by battlefield victories in the east, where it has captured swathes of formerly rebel-held terrain, the government is now trying to overrun the Tigers' northern stronghold, vowing to defeat them militarily.
But the Tigers continue to mount deadly suicide attacks and roadside bombings, some in the capital Colombo.
The military says it has killed more than 1,100 rebels this year and that 83 service personnel and 89 civilians have been killed.