COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, September 22, SPA -- Sri Lankan forces pushed deepinto the northern heartland of ethnic Tamil rebels, killing56 of them in ferocious fighting that also killed sevensoldiers, while police killed two rebels in the east, themilitary said Monday. The wave of battles across the north Sunday came amid anew government offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. Inrecent weeks, troops seized control of huge areas of landthe rebels had controlled for years and threatened tooverrun the separatists' administrative capital in the townof Kilinochchi, the Associated Press reported. The government has vowed to crush the rebels, capturetheir de facto state and end the civil war in this IndianOcean island nation by the end of the year. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, on a trip to New York forthis week's annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, saidthe government felt it was forced to fight to free thecivilians living under rebel rule. «We are not a government that is committed to militaryaction. We do not believe in battle,» he said Sundayevening, according to a government statement.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/592299