COLOMBO (AFP) - At least 32 Tamil Tigers were killed in heavy fighting in Sri Lanka's embattled northeast where government troops have cornered the rebels, the defence ministry said Saturday. "The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) end game is reaching its final phase," the ministry said in a statement, adding dozens of rebels were also wounded in Friday's clashes around the coastal Mullaittivu area. It accused the Tigers of killing three civilians and seriously injuring another as a group of people tried to flee rebel areas in six boats. The ministry did not give its own casualties, but said troops recovered weapons from the Tigers who were killed Friday. There was no statement from the Tiger rebels, who have been cornered in a narrow strip of land in Mullaittivu. The military has said it hopes to defeat the Tigers completely by April, bringing an end to decades of armed conflict. The Tigers, who have been fighting since 1972 to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the majority Sinhalese island nation, have lost much of their territory in the past two years. Meanwhile, the breakaway Tiger splinter group, the Tamil People's Liberation Tigers (TMVP) party, disarmed fighters and handed over their weapons to the government Saturday in the eastern town of Batticaloa, officials said. Led by "Colonel Karuna," - a nom de guerre for Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan - widely seen as the second most powerful figure in the now battered LTTE, the TMVP broke away from the LTTE in 2004. Following his defection, Karuna helped the Sri Lankan army to drive rebels out of the eastern district of Batticaloa, in what was one of the military's biggest successes in 2007. The party has since joined the mainstream political process and was elected last year to run the local administration of the island's east. Karuna has since left the party and entered parliament last year under the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance ticket.