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Sri Lankan military says it captures rebel base
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-17 16:04

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lankan troops captured a massive Tamil Tiger training base with underground bunkers, lecture halls and a cemetery as government forces pushed ahead with their offensive against the rebels, the military said Sunday.

A series of raging battles across the northern war zone Saturday killed 27 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven government troops, the military said.

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Troops have broken through the rebels' defenses in recent weeks and seized a series of key towns and bases. Government officials say they hope to rout the Tamil Tigers by the end of the year and end the Indian Ocean island nation's 25-year-old civil war.

On Saturday evening, soldiers took control of a rebel training base in Andankulam in the Welioya region after Tamil Tiger fighters fled the area, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.

"Earlier they had given resistance, but afterward they had withdrawn," he said.

Troops uncovered about 100 underground bunkers, four lecture halls, water wells, toilet facilities and a cemetery for fallen fighters with 67 buried bodies, he said.

Fighting throughout the day in Welioya killed eight rebels, while battles in Vavuniya killed nine others and two soldiers, the military said. Other front line battles killed 10 other rebels and five soldiers, the military said.

Repeated attempts in recent days to reach rebel spokesmen by e-mail, telephone and satellite phones have been unsuccessful.

Both sides routinely exaggerate enemy casualties and underreport their own. Independent verification of the fighting is not possible because most journalists are barred from the war zone.

International aid groups have said the recent fighting forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes.