Sri Lankan soldiers seize rebel training camp

Colombo: Sri Lanka soldiers captured a Tamil Tiger training camp as government troops pressed ahead with their offensive against the guerrillas in the country's embattled north, the military said on Sunday.

Government troops have achieved a string of major victories against the rebels in recent months, including the capture of the Tamil Tiger administrative capital of Kilinochchi a week ago. The government has vowed to crush the separatist guerrillas and end the Indian Ocean island nation's 25-year-old civil war in the coming months.

Army soldiers, advancing into the rapidly shrinking rebel territory, captured a rebel training camp near the village of Mulliyaweli in the last rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu on Friday, the military said in a statement.

There were underground bunkers and an auditorium in the camp, the statement said.

The statement did not provide details of casualties from the fight to capture the camp.

Separately, the military said soldiers found three bodies of Tamil rebels killed in fighting in Waddakachchi in the Kilinochchi district.

Rebel spokesmen could not be reached for comment on the fighting.