The Sri Lankan army has for the first time given an indication of the scale of the fighting in the civil war that ended this week, saying that more than 6,000 soldiers were killed and nearly 30,000 wounded in the final three years of conflict.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought for 25 years for an independent homeland for the country’s Tamil minority in the island’s north and east but were finally crushed by the overwhelming military force of the government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the nationalist president.