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Heavy fighting claims 66 lives in Lanka

Military bars foreign media from polls

AFP, AP, Colombo/Valaichchenai
At least 64 Tamil Tiger rebels and two Sri Lankan soldiers have been killed in the latest battles in the island's north, according to the defence ministryyesterday.
It said the two days of fighting on Tuesday and Wednesday occurred in the Vavuniya, Mannar and Well Oya areas, from where
government forces are trying to push into the guerrillas' northern mini-state.
There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (UTE).
The latest casualties raise to 3,471 the number of LTTE cadres the defence ministry says have been killed since the start of the year. It has admitted losing 261
soldiers in the same period.
Information from the front line cannot be independently verified since Colombo prevents media and rights groups from visiting the embattled areas.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's military barred foreign journalists Thursday from covering weekend elections in the east that are seen as a test of confidence in the government, which seized the region from Tamil Tiger rebels last year.
Maj Gen Palitha Fernando said any foreigner not registered as an election observer cannot be in Eastern province during the polls.
An Associated Press reporter and a photographer were stopped at a checkpoint and were asked to go back.
Fernando said the barring of journalists and other foreigners during the elections was for their own protection.
"It could be dangerous. If something happens and a foreigner gets injured it will create problems," Fernando said.
Saturday's first-ever elections for the Eastern Provincial Council are seen as a referendum on the government's performance since it drove the rebels from their strongholds in the province last year.
Opposition parties accuse the go’ ?niment of forming an alliance with a group of former rebels accused of killings, abductions and recruiting child soldiers. They say the group has terrorised opposing candidates and voters.
The government says the group's members carry guns only to protect themselves from the Tamil Tigers, from which they broke away.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the island's north and east. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
The government announced last July that it had cleared the east of rebels, although the guerrillas continue to operate in small cells and launch sporadic attacks on soldiers.