COLOMBO (AFP) -- At least 14 Tamil Tiger guerrillas and two Sri Lankan government soldiers died in sporadic clashes in and around rebel-held territory in the north, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Security forces destroyed a fortified position of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Weli Oya region on Monday and killed 12 rebels there for the loss of one soldier.
Another two Tigers and a soldier were killed elsewhere in the island's troubled north, the ministry said.
There was no comment from the rebels, who are leading a decades-old campaign for independence for minority Tamils in the majority Sinhalese nation of 19.5 million people.
According to the Defense Ministry, 1,595 rebels have been killed so far this year. The military estimates the Tigers' strength at 5,000 combatants.
The ministry says 92 soldiers and police have also been killed in 2008.
Casualty figures provided by both sides differ vastly and cannot be independently verified since the government bars journalists and human rights workers from frontline and rebel-held areas.