Sri Lanka fightings kill 17 rebels

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COLOMBO, SEPT 27 (AP): A wave of artillery assaults, gunbattles and a bombing across northern Sri Lanka killed 17 rebels, two civilians and a soldier, the military said Thursday, stoking fears of a new escalation in the country's more than two-decade civil war.
In the latest violence, a small group of rebels crossed over the front lines north of their de facto state in northern Sri Lanka at Muhamalai near the turbulent city of Jaffna early Wednesday, Nanayakkara said. Soldiers fought them off with small arms fire, killing four of them, and then raided rebel territory and destroyed three bunkers, he said.
In a second incident near Vavuniya, just south of rebel-controlled territory, soldiers and the rebels waged an artillery battle throughout the day Wednesday that killed seven rebel fighters and one soldier, Nanayakkara said.