Tamil rebels killed in Sri Lanka

AT LEAST 16 Tamil separatists died in gun battles with government troops in northern Sri Lanka, while a roadside bomb killed one soldier in the government-controlled south, the military said yesterday.

Troops attacked Tamil Tiger bunkers and killed seven rebels in the northern Vavuniya district, just south of the rebels' de facto state in the north, said military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara. Two soldiers were wounded in the fighting, he said. Two other battles in the northern Jaffna peninsula left seven insurgents dead and two soldiers wounded.