MADHU, Sri Lanka, April 25 (UPI) -- Sri Lankan troops, embroiled in a renewed civil war, took control of a church that has the country's most important Roman Catholic shrine, army officials said.
The church, in the northern town of Madhu, lies on a front line in a battle between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels that has killed at least 165 soldiers, with 20 missing, and more than 100 rebels, officials said.
The rebels had left the shrine by the time the army arrived, the BBC reported.
Priests fled the complex earlier this month, removing a statue of the Virgin Mary from the shrine. It was the first time in 400 years that the statue, known as Our Lady of Madhu, had been taken from the shrine.
"The centuries-old Catholic shrine is held sacred and respected by all Sri Lankans irrespective of religion and ethnicity," a report from the Ministry of Defense said.
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