COLOMBO, May 5 (Reuters) - At least eleven Sri Lankan military personnel were killed in fresh fighting in the far north of the country, Tamil Tiger rebels said on Monday.

The military denied the claim. It said the Sri Lankan air force had bombed rebel positions and that its soldiers had killed six rebels on Sunday in the latest violence.

Fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire in January, although a renewed civil war has effectively been raging since 2006. After driving Tamil Tiger rebels from the east, the army is focusing on Tiger-held areas in the north of the island, intensifying fighting in a conflict that has killed an estimated 70,000 people since 1983.

The fighting in the north western district of Mannar and northern districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya and Polonnaruwa comes two week after one of the bloodiest battles in the long civil war.

Rebels killed three Sri Lankan navy personnel in an overnight attack on a checkpoint in Mannar, Tamil Tiger rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said in an emailed statement.

The Tigers, fighting for an independent state in the north and east, also said they prevented a military attempt to advance towards rebel-held areas in northern Jaffna peninsula.

They killed eight soldiers and wounded around 20 in the incident, Ilanthiraiyan said, adding that rebels had suffered no casualties in either case.

The military denied the rebel claim. It said one solder was missing and one solder was wounded when the rebels launched an attack in Mannar.

The military said fighting in the far north a day earlier killed six Tamil Tiger rebels and injured 32, while two solders died and 11 were injured.

"The air force gun ship helicopters attacked a terrorist gathering point in Mannar in support of the ground operations," said a military spokesman asking not to be named in line with the policy.

Analysts say both the government and rebels often inflate enemy death tolls and play down their own losses. The reports are rarely possible to verify independently.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has pledged to destroy the Tigers militarily.

The rebels have hit back with bombings in Colombo and elsewhere in the relatively peaceful south of the island when they have come under military pressure in the past. (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; editing by Keith Weir)

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