Sri Lanka kills 7 Tigers, another blows himself up

COLOMBO, Aug 7 (Reuters) Sri Lankan soldiers killed seven Tamil Tigers in the island's restive north, while another rebel wearing a belt packed with explosives blew himself up to avoid capture, the military said today.

Troops killed six rebels in a gunbattle in the northern district of Vavuniya yesterday after they were ambushed, while one rebel was shot dead and the other committed suicide in a separate incident in the district today.

''The army fired and killed one terrorist who tried to attack them with a hand grenade and another blew himself when troops tried to arrest him,'' a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said, declining to be named in line with policy.

Two soldiers were wounded in the explosion, he added.

The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

A spree of land and sea clashes, ambushes and air raids have killed an estimated 4,500 people since last year, taking the death toll of a conflict that erupted in 1983 to around 70,000.

Fighting between the state and rebels is now focused in the north after the military evicted the Tigers from their last stronghold in the east. However analysts see no clear winner on the horizon and fear the fighting could grind on for years.

REUTERS PY RAI1752