COLOMBO, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The troops in Sri Lanka killed three female Tamil Tiger rebels in a battle with one soldier being killed in the country's north on Sunday, the military said Monday.

    The Army said that three female LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) members were killed when the Army used heavy weapons for countering the rebels fire destroying a rebels' bunker at Thampanai in the Vavuniya district around 03:00 p.m. local time (1030 GMT).

    One soldier was also killed and another injured due to LTTE mortar attack, said the Army.

    Fighting has been an almost daily occurrence in northern Sri Lanka since mid-September.

    Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.

    More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence since the end of 2005.