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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A passenger ferry set out for northern Sri Lanka on Friday to help evacuate hundreds of foreign nationals cut off by fighting between government forces and ethnic Tamil rebels.
The ferry, which has seats for 150 people, set out from eastern Sri Lanka, the second front in the conflict. The military announced the deaths of five more insurgents in the latest clashes there.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for the country's 3.2 million Tamils. The government is dominated by Sri Lanka's 14 million Sinhalese.
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