COLOMBO, Sept 1: Sri Lankan jets and helicopters blasted Tamil Tiger rebel positions on Monday after three days of combat killed at least 84 people, part of a military offensive towards the separatists’ de facto capital.

Fighting since Friday killed 70 insurgents and wounded 77 others, while 14 troops were killed and 53 were wounded at several locations along a shifting frontline in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation, the army said.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also said the military had killed five civilians on Sunday while shelling Kilinochchi, the rebels’ administrative seat and a symbolic target the military is trying to capture.

The government denied killing any civilians and has dropped leaflets urging thousands of people caught in the fighting to head south to the army-controlled town of Vavuniya, to which the army has promised safe passage.

The war in the past two years has sent more than 100,000 fleeing the north and east of the country. The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to turn the area into a separate nation for the minority ethnic Tamils.

The rebels could not be immediately reached for comment on the death tolls. Figures are difficult to verify since the military restricts access to the battle zones and both sides regularly distort them in their favour.

The 25-year-old war flared in January when the government officially threw out a poorly-observed ceasefire and went full force at the LTTE, vowing to wipe it out this year.

The LTTE is seeking a homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community in the island’s north and east.

Fighting is now concentrated around the north as security forces move into rebel-held territory to dismantle the LTTE’s northern stronghold. They ejected the guerrillas from the east of the island in July 2007.—Agencies