COLOMBO - At least 38 Sri Lankan troops died and another 280 were wounded on Wednesday in a major offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in the island’s north, military sources said. “More than 110 of the wounded have already been air-lifted to Colombo,” a top military source told AFP. “The army has lost at least 38 soldiers killed and at least 280 have been wounded.”There was no immediate word of rebel casualties. But the army said it had inflicted heavy losses on the guerrillas who said three days ago that the military was preparing for a major offensive in Jaffna. “Ground troops confirmed that a large number of terrorist dead bodies were also found scattered around their forward defence lines,” the army said in a statement.