COLOMBO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least 25 Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed in northern Sri Lanka since Monday in separate clashes with government troops, said the military on Tuesday.

    Officials from the Media Center for National Security said one Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) member was killed and another was injured in a confrontation with government troops on Tuesday at Nawatkulam in Vavuniya district around 8:05 a.m. local time (0235 GMT).

    Also in the Vavuniya district, 13 LTTE rebels were killed and two government troops were wounded in three separate incidents on Monday.

    In the Jaffna peninsula, nine rebels were killed in four incidents on Monday, officials said.

    Meanwhile, two rebels were killed and four injured in three clashes with government troops at Welioya of the Mullaitivu district on Monday, while three soldiers were killed and three were injured in action.

    Clashes between the two sides began to shift to the north after the military claimed in mid-July that the rebels had been totally cleared from the Eastern Province.

    The government said it aimed to kill at least 10 LTTE rebels each day in the north, thus reducing the existing number of rebels to 2,000 by August this year and paving the way for a decisive battle with the organization.

    Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.

    More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence since the end of 2005, making the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement exist only on paper.