Colombo: Battles between army soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's volatile north over the past two days have killed nine insurgents, the military said today. Five soldiers also were wounded in the clashes along two fronts in the northern district of Mannar, said an officer at the defence ministry's media centre. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

There was no immediate comment from the rebels and telephone calls to rebels headquarters in northern Kilinochchi rang unanswered. Mannar has become a flashpoint in the country's escalating conflict in recent weeks after government troops last month recaptured rebel-held areas of eastern Sri Lanka. The guerrillas still control a virtual state in the north.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka for minority ethnic Tamils, who have faced discrimination under years of majority Sinhalese-dominated governments. The war has killed about 70,000 people. A 2002 cease-fire temporarily ended most of the fighting, but the pact collapsed over the past 21 months into renewed violence.