A roadside bomb suspected to have been planted by Tamil Tigers killed two police commandos on Thursday while Sri Lankan troops captured a rebel base in the north west killing 40 rebels, the military said. The capture of the rebel camp in Mannar comes a week after one of the bloodiest battles in the country's long civil war. “Advancing troops...brought the entire area under control on Wednesday,” a spokesman at the Media centre for National security said. The military said a suspected rebel roadside bomb in central Anuradhapura killed two police commandos, while police retaliation killed two rebels. The military said fighting in the far north a day earlier, killed 25 Tamil Tiger rebels and injured 37 while four solders died and 14 were injured. After driving the Tamil Tiger rebels from the east, the armed forces are now focused on Tiger-held areas in north, intensifying fighting in a 25-year-old civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people since 1983.
