Sri Lanka’s military has lost 28 soldiers in three days of artillery attacks as it advanced on Tamil Tiger rebel strongholds, officials said today.

SRI LANKA captured a key town used by Tamil Tigers to target artillery at a major naval port, as the country’s president urged the rebels to return to peace talks.

Sri Lanka’s navy and ethnic Tamil rebels engaged in a high-sea gun battle that lasted until dawn today, the military said, claiming to have sunk 12 rebel boats, including five suicide craft, and killing about 80 rebels.

Sri Lanka’s armed forces and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery fire overnight, as the military advanced on a strategic Tiger-held enclave in the northeast in an assault that has killed at least 79 people, the military said today.