The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Colombo

Security forces ambushed and killed scores of Tamil Tigers in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, the defence ministry said, adding its troops were poised to take the rebels' political capital.

Government soldiers occupying a newly-captured bunker line from the Tiger rebels in the Jaffna peninsula carried out the ambush early Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. It did not say if there were casualties among troops. However, the ministry said government soldiers in the northern mainland were set to take the town of Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Heavy fighting was raging along three fronts on the outskirts of Kilinochchi despite monsoon rains, the ministry said. "Soldiers are busy with strengthening the supply backbone for troops in the forward areas with loads of food, drinking water and medicine being transported there," the ministry said.