COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, January 14, SPA -- A wave of pitched battles, bombings and an air strike killed at least 23 people across northern Sri Lanka, the military said Monday, as a Japanese envoy met with officials to try to stop the raging civilwar. In one attack, a roadside bomb hit a van in the Vavuniyaregion, just south of the front lines separating governmentforces from the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto state in thenorth, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. The passengers, civilian workers with a military escort,were returning from an army base after collectingexplosives for use in civilian metal mining, he said. The civilian driver and two soldiers were killed, whilethree other soldiers and a civilian were injured, themilitary said. The explosives inside the van did notdetonate, Nanayakkara said. In hopes of reviving the shattered peace process, Japanesemediator Yasushi Akashi met Monday with Foreign MinisterRohitha Bogollagama as part of a three-day visit to theIndian Ocean island nation. He was to meet with PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa later in the day. Japan was a key backer of the Norway-brokered cease-fire,and Akashi played a pivotal role in organizing a 2003 donorconference in Tokyo to raise funds to rebuild areas in SriLanka destroyed by the war. In other violence, government fighter jets attacked aTamil Tiger intelligence and military base in Kombavikulamin rebel-held area, destroying it, Nanayakkara was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Government soldiers also crossed the front lines Sundaynight, destroying three bunkers and killing six rebels, themilitary said Monday. Troops killed a seventh insurgentwhen he went to inspect the front lines north of rebel-heldterritory, the military said. Scattered battles throughout the north killed 10 otherrebels and two soldiers, the military reported. In another incident, troops demanded two rebels surrender,but one of them ran away and the other committed suicide,the military said. Rebel fighters carry a glass vial ofcyanide around their necks so they can take their own livesif in danger of being captured.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/517475