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| Sri Lanka troops 'kill 30 Tigers' | Sri Lanka troops 'kill 30 Tigers' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Sri Lanka's military says its troops have killed at least 30 Tamil Tiger rebels in fierce fighting in the east of the country. | |
| "We have captured and destroyed four Tamil Tiger camps during battles over the last 48 hours," said military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe. | "We have captured and destroyed four Tamil Tiger camps during battles over the last 48 hours," said military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe. |
| He said one Sri Lanka soldier had been killed and 17 wounded. There has been no confirmation from the Tamil Tigers. | |
| Despite an official truce, Sri Lanka has been sliding back to civil war. | |
| More than 4,000 people have been killed in violence in the past 15 months. | More than 4,000 people have been killed in violence in the past 15 months. |
| 'Last battle' | |
| The military said troops had overrun a rebel camp in the jungle in Thoppigala, the scene of artillery and mortar bomb exchanges for weeks. | |
| "We estimate troops killed 30 Tigers, plus three Tigers committed suicide in front of our troops," the spokesman said. | |
| News of the fighting came as Sri Lankan authorities said some of the Tamils expelled from the capital Colombo this week had started to return. | |
| They were among hundreds of minority Tamils expelled from the city on Thursday in a move that caused widespread outrage, being described as ethnic cleansing by human rights groups. | |
| On Friday, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ordered the authorities to immediately halt any further evictions of the minority Tamils. | |
| A defence ministry spokesman said nearly 400 Tamils were expelled because they were part of a plot by rebels to set off bombs in Colombo. | |
| The police have offered no evidence against any of the evicted Tamils. |