A series of battles between the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers along the front lines of their civil war killed 20 rebel fighters and one government soldier, the military said Monday. The violence occurred amid a resurgent government offensive that has captured large sections of the rebels' de facto state in the north in recent weeks, the Associated Press reported. In the heaviest fighting Sunday, troops along the Welioya front killed eight rebels in scattered battles, while one soldier was killed by a bomb blast, the military said in a statement. A further 12 rebels were killed in fighting in the Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Jaffna regions, the military said.
