COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, April 22, SPA -- Sri Lankan soldiers have pushed deep into the sole remaining Tamil rebel enclave and killed43 guerrillas while nearly 82,000 civilians have fled thenorthern war zone within the last 72 hours, the militarysaid Wednesday. Troops in recent months have ousted the rebels from alltheir former strongholds and hemmed them into what thegovernment previously deemed a «no fire» zone to protectcivilians. But troops entered the 7.7-square-mile(20-square-kilometer) zone this week to fight remainingrebels and free civilians trapped there, Associated Press reported. The military said it broke through a key rebel bunker inthe coastal strip on Monday and that tens of thousands ofcivilians have been fleeing the area since then. ByWednesday, 81,423 civilians had escaped, the military said. Troops advanced deep into the zone and captured a part ofduring fighting with insurgents on Monday and Tuesday,killing at least 43 rebels, said Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara,the military spokesman. Tamil rebels are cornered into a stretch of about fivemiles (eight kilometers), he was quoted as saying by Associated Press.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/656971