Colombo  - Government troops were advancing from three fronts to a strategic town in northern Sri Lanka Sunday as Tamil rebels were set to mark two anniversaries.

The defence ministry said troops are marching towards Kilinochchi, 370 kilometres north of the capital, which has been a Tamil stronghold and centre of rebel administration for more than a decade.

The army Sunday launched attacks at earth embankments built around the outskirts of Kilinochchi, the Defence Ministry said.

The government campaign comes as Tamil rebels prepare to mark both the birthday of chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who turns 54, and Heroes Week, in which members killed during the Tamil's 25-year- campaign for independence are remembered.

At least 52 LTTE militants were killed in fierce battles with the Sri Lankan army near the Jaffna peninsula officials said on Friday.

The Army also captured a Tamil Tigers' airstrip in nearby Kilinochchi.

"Smashing the conventional notion that the Tigers' Forward Defence Lines in Muhamale and Kilaly cannot be challenged, troops in Jaffna on Thursday overran the first LTTE Forward Defence Line in the strategic bottleneck and the lagoon to the north and south of the Jaffna-Kandy Highway killing over fifty militants," the army said.

Colombo - Two soldiers were killed and 13 others were injured in an accid

Colombo  , Nov. 20 : India''s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Alok Prasad, on Thursday, handed over a consignment of humanitarian relief assistance for distribution among civilians in the war-torn Wanni area.

The consignment was handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

It includes hygiene items, clothes and food and weighs 1680 tons. It was delivered at a function held at Kelaniya on the outskirts of Colombo.

Chennai, Nov 18 : Dalit Panther of India (DPI), a regional political party of Tamil Nadu, took out a massive rally in Chennai on Tuesday to protest against the military offensive in northern Sri Lanka.

The protesters were demanding that the Indian government should intervene and ask the Sri Lankan government to order ceasefire and put an end to the war that''s going on in Tamil dominated areas of Sri Lanka.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's Navy and Air Force jointly attacked a cluster of Tamil rebel boats off the island's north-eastern coast on Tuesday morning, killing at least six rebels, military officials said.

Fighting broke out after the Sri Lanka Navy's elite Special Boat Squadron confronted a cluster of "sea tiger" boats off Nayaru, more than 370 kilometres north-east of Colombo, shortly before dawn.

The navy destroyed two of the boats while the air force attacked five of the boats fleeing the area, officials said.