COLOMBO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Army Commander Sarath Fonseka visited the battle zone in the island's north on Saturday amid escalating conflict between government troops and Tamil Tigers rebels, defense officials said Saturday.

    Fonseka visited the Vavuniya district where the Security Forces Headquarters of Wanni (referring to the general area partly controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels) was located, officials said.

    The commander discussed the prevailing security situation therewith Wanni Security Forces Commander Major General Jagath Jayasuriya and other senior commanders.

    Currently government troops are engaged in three different fronts against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in the north.

    Fonseka, who survived an assassination attempt by an LTTE suicide bomber in April 2006 has vowed to liberate the entire Northern Province from the rebels within 2008.

    The government maintains that the rebels have now been restricted to just three districts in the Northern Province after government troops recaptured the Eastern Province in July 2007.

    The fighting has intensified in the northern battle theater after the government's announcement in mid-January to withdraw from the 2002 Norwegian backed ceasefire with the LTTE.

    The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people.