Sri Lanka: Raising fears of a return to civil war, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed 11 soldiers in the island's far north yesterday in the second mine attack in less than a week, the military said.
The blast followed a string of guerrilla ambushes on the military and the assassination of a pro-rebel member of parliament at a Christmas mass, incidents that are straining to breaking point a truce reached in 2002.
"It was a claymore attack," said military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe, referring to the claymore fragmentation mine used in the assault near the northern town of Point Pedro.
"Definitely the LTTE is behind this attack," he said, using the initials of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "No one else is capable of doing this kind of claymore mine attack in Jaffna."
Ten soldiers died in the blast, while another died from his injuries in hospital.
In separate incidents, suspected Tigers shot dead one policeman and injured another in the eastern district of Batticaloa and soldiers found a hidden claymore mine.
"We are very concerned about the situation and urge both parties to show restraint," said Mats Lundstrom, spokesman for the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission overseeing the truce. "We are concerned about the future of the ceasefire agreement."
Ceasefire monitors have stopped patrols in the Jaffna peninsula. - (Reuters)