Military: Fighting kills 93 rebels

? Fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels defending their last remaining territory in the country’s war-ravaged north killed 93 rebels on Saturday, the military said.

Government forces are in what they say is a final push to defeat the rebels — the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — and end 25 years of civil war.

A string of major victories by the military in recent months, in which the rebels’ administrative capital and main bases were captured, has pushed the guerrillas into a small strip of coastal land measuring just 8.4 square miles (21 square kilometers) in the northeast.

The United Nations and aid and rights groups have expressed grave concerns about the civilians caught in the fighting, estimating some 150,000 to 190,000 people are trapped, resulting in dozens of deaths each day.