Sri Lankan troops leading a heavy offensive against Tamil separatists have secured parts of a key highway running through rebel-held territory, the defence ministry said on Friday. Security forces cleared a stretch of 21 kilometres (13 miles) of the main A-9 highway in an area that had been in no-man’s land after the latest military thrust, defence officials said. With troops securing the town of Kankarayankulam, the de-facto frontier post shifted deeper into rebel-held areas, the ministry said. Full Story