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Intense battles gripped Sri Lanka's northern Wanni region as government forces stepped up pressure on the Tamil rebel political capital, the defense ministry said Friday.
Scores of rebels were killed and many more wounded in Thursday's fighting west of Mankulam, a key town on the road to the rebel political headquarters at Kilinochchi, further north, the ministry said in a statement.
It did not give military casualties, but said the bodies of seven members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were captured by security forces following Thursday's battles.
Government forces have been fighting for months to take Kilinochchi, 330 kilometers (just over 200 miles) north of the capital Colombo. Heavy monsoon rains and intense rebel resistance had slowed the military onslaught.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also the defense minister, asked the Tigers on Thursday to lay down arms and surrender.
"My earnest plea to the terrorist is to lay-down arms and join the democratic process, even at this late stage," the president said while unveiling a war-budget in parliament.
"If not, they would be militarily defeated. We have come to a stage in which we believe that we should and we can eradicate terrorism," he said.
Tens of thousands of people have died on both sides since 1972, when the LTTE launched its campaign to carve out an independent state in the Sinhalese-majority island of 20 million people.
PHOTO CAPTION
Government troops in the northern Wanni region.
AFP
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