[Inkscape-user] "phantom" objects in .svg files

I am just curious: When you delete an object from your .svg file, does it actually get rid of the associated XML, or just not display it any more?

I do a lot of stuff in Inkscape and then import the .svg into Blender for extrusion, etc. I find that sometimes I get "extra" objects in Blender when I do this, i.e., the object that was deleted.

...and I am just wondering where these objects come from...