Soldiers took control of Michael Base in the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu district after three days of fighting, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

He said casualty details were not immediately available.

Fighting has escalated in this Indian Ocean island in recent months, with the military stepping up ground assaults and air strikes on rebels in line with a government pledge to capture rebel-held territory and crush the insurgents by the end of the year.

Also other clashes took place in the Vavuniya, Mannar and Welioya regions bordering the rebels' de facto northern state on Thursday, said a defense ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to government policy.

Several battles in Mannar left 24 guerrillas and two soldiers dead, he said. Twenty-five rebels and 10 soldiers were wounded.

Other battles in Vavuniya and Welioya killed eight rebels, and wounded 12 Tamil Tiger fighters and four soldiers, the official said.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment on any of the reported fighting.

It was not possible to independently verify the military reports because journalists are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place. Each side commonly exaggerates its enemy's casualties and downplays its own.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The government has vowed to end the insurgency by the end of this year but the island's army chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, told reporters Monday that it may take another year to defeat the rebels.Discuss this story Published: Fri Jul 4 15:06:16 EDT 2008

"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has been hit by military action. All they now do is just defending their forward defense lines," Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna told the BBC Tamil radio Saturday.

Karuna who was accused by the British authorities of arriving in Britain with false travel documents last September was deported to Sri Lanka on Thursday.

"The LTTE cannot anymore do military attacks on their own. But it will take more time for them to be totally eliminated," Karuna said. More... Published: Sat Jul 5 05:20:36 EDT 2008

Wearing black armbands, journalists and human rights activists said the freedom of the press had been undermined as the war continues between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).

"Media workers are continually being harassed, they are being tortured, they are being hammered," said one man who was holding a placard. "So we have been complaining to the authorities but nothing is happening."

"Perhaps, there are individuals within the heart of the government who feel that any kind of dissent is to be taken personally and squashed, because the end justifies the means," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, from the think-tank the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who had joined the protestors.

"And the end for them may well be their notion of defeating terrorism, but they are destroying everything this country stands for if it is to be a functioning democracy," Mr Saravanamuttu said.

The World Association of Newspapers ranked Sri Lanka the third most dangerous country in the world for media workers in 2007 based on the number who were killed. More... Published: Fri Jul 4 07:43:40 EDT 2008