Sri Lanka rebels kill police as battles rage in north

COLOMBO, March 4 (Reuters) -- Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down a policeman on Wednesday in Sri Lanka's south, far from the war zone where the military expects to win a 25-year separatist conflict in a matter of days, the military said.

And heavy combat broke out again as troops pushed further into the remaining 50 square km (19 sq mile) held by the Tigers, recovering the bodies of seven dead rebels after capturing the last rebel-held road junction the day before, the military said.

Underscoring the potential for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to carry out low-level insurgent attacks, a band of suspected Tigers fired on a police post in Butalla and set off a gun battle, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

"Suspected LTTE fired at a police picket and one police constable was killed," he said.

There have been sporadic attacks by what the military says is a band of about 30 LTTE in the area, the most recent coming in a remote sector of the Yala national park in September that killed one soldier. Butalla is about 20 km (12 miles) away.

Analysts have said they expect the remnants of the LTTE to stage small-scale attacks after the military hands the group a conventional defeat on the battlefield in northern Sri Lanka. The military has said it is ready to defend against that. (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani