Sri Lanka fighting kills 6 rebels and 3 soldiers

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka fighting killed six Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers in the north of the island, the military said on Thursday.

The violence in the northern district of Vavuniya, the focus of renewed civil war between the state and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is the latest in a series of near daily clashes in recent months.

"Confrontations in Vavuniya killed six terrorists and injured large numbers on Wednesday," a military spokesman said, adding that three soldiers were killed and five wounded from the fighting.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, said they foiled a military attempt to advance towards their territory.

The military has launched an offensive to drive out the rebels from Mannar, after evicting them from jungle terrain they controlled in the east earlier this year.

Around 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between the military and the LTTE guerrillas since early 2006.

Nearly 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since the war erupted in 1983.