Sri Lankan soldiers launched a pre-dawn attack on Tamil separatists in the embattled north Sunday, killing 15 rebels, while other battles in the region left 24 rebels and one soldier dead, said the military. The civil war on the Indian Ocean island has escalated in recent months, with the military stepping up ground assaults and airstrikes after the government pledged to capture rebel-held territory and crush the insurgents. In the latest offensive, army troops pushed into the rebel territory across a defense line in the village of Kilali on the Jaffna peninsula early Sunday and attacked rebel bunkers, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. He said soldiers killed 15 guerrillas before retreating to their bunkers, without suffering casualties. Fighting, meanwhile, continued throughout Saturday along the front lines in Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Jaffna and Welioya regions bordering the rebels' de fact state, Nanayakkara said. Scattered battles in Vavuniya killed 16 rebels and one soldier while three rebels died in Mullaitivu. Separate clashes killed five insurgents in Welioya and Jaffna.