Colombo - Seven people, including four civilians and three air force personnel, were killed in a roadside claymore mine explosion in north-eastern Sri Lanka on Friday morning, police said.

A vehicle carrying a group of construction workers and airmen was targeted in the Morawewa area of the Trincomalee district, 230 kilometres north-east of the capital Colombo.

In addition to the seven dead, another civilian was injured in the blast.

The incident occurred in a government-controlled area where civil administration has been functioning.

Further north, government troops are battling to recapture rebel- held areas and have made steady advances into rebel controlled areas, according to the military.

Colombo, Jan. 8 : Unidentified gunmen, riding on a motorcycle, on Thursday killed Lasantha Wickramatunga, the editor of the Sri Lankan daily, Sunday Leader, while he was en route to his office here.

Reports quoted the police as saying that Wickramatunga had died of head wounds received in the shootout. Doctors said they spent three hours trying to save his life.

Local media reports said that Wickramatunga was known for his criticism of the government.

Colombo, Jan. 8 : A spokesman of the Sri Lanka military said on Thursday that government troops have taken more territory from Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told a press conference here that the army has seized the town of Pallai and hopes to recapture the entire northern part of the country soon.

Pallai is south of Muhamalai, the northernmost defensive line of the rebels in Jaffna, which the troops captured on Tuesday. The Tigers have not yet commented on the latest fighting in Jaffna.

Colombo - Security forces have started an advance towards a former military garrison in northern Sri Lanka in an attempt to drive Tamil rebels off the Jaffna peninsula.

The government troops reached the southern reaches of the Elephant Pass area, 395 kilometres north of the capital Colombo, and in the process captured a village earlier controlled by the rebels.

The Elephant Pass is strategically located at the entry to the northern Jaffna peninsula. The military twice lost control of the area to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Colombo  - A private radio and television station on the outskirts of Sri Lanka's capital has been attacked by an armed gang that inflicted extensive damage to the studio complex and interrupted its broadcasts, a spokesman for the station said Tuesday.

A gang of 15 to 20 men stormed the Maharaja TV and Maharaja Broadcasting Corporation at Pannipitiya, 20 kilometres south-east of the Colombo, holding the staff at gunpoint and assaulting some of them before causing the damage early Tuesday, the spokesman said.