COLOMBO, July 17: At least 76 combatants were killed on Wednesday when Tamil rebels attacked government troops digging into captured positions along a key rebel-controlled highway in northern Sri Lanka.

``There was close quarter fighting with mortars and small arms,'' military spokesman Sarath Munasinghe told mediapersons on Thursday. Seventeen soldiers were killed, and the bodies of 17 rebels were also recovered, but soldiers estimated that more than 60 rebels were killed in the battle near the town of Nedunkeni, 250 kilometres (156 miles) northeast of Colombo, said Munasinghe. Another 100 rebels were believed wounded, he said.

The rebels abandoned six machine guns, 12 automatic rifles and three radio communication sets, the spokesman said.

The army, supported by war planes and tanks, has captured about one-quarter of the 88-kilometre highway in a two-month-old offensive to open a land route to the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula.

Nearly half a million people inhabit the peninsula, a former rebel stronghold, which is now accessible only by sea and air.

Two rebel counter attacks in June brought the government's campaign to a halt. More than 450 soldiers and 1,000 rebels have been killed since the offensive started in May.

The rebels are fighting for a homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, who, they say, are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese community. The Sinhalese control the two centres of power in this Indian ocean island the government and the military.

More than 48,000 people have been killed in the 14-year-old ethnic war. y

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.