Rebels Launch Attack in Latest Fighting

Tamil Tiger guerrillas launched a ferocious counterattack against government troops in northern Sri Lanka as the death toll from three days of fighting rose to more than 300, military officials said.

But diplomats said efforts to start talks between the government and the rebels still appeared to be on track.

Sri Lankan military officials said the rebels were making a furious assault on government defenses around a sandy sliver of land wrenched from the guerrillas in an army offensive launched Wednesday in the northern Jaffna peninsula.