Sri Lanka's Tiger rebels keep firing at troops

The Sri Lankan military said the rebel Tamil Tigers are keeping attacks on the government troops in the east from Thursday night to Friday morning but caused no casualties.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels kept on attacking the military installations at Kadjuwatta and Mankerni as well the military's forward defense lines there.

"The LTTE was attacking us from Vakarai (a rebel held area) and the Army retaliated with artillery, mortar and multi barrel rocket launch fire," Samarasinghe said.

He said that the rebels also fired at Maavil Aru, the scene of late July military clashes between the warring factions following the rebel action to forcibly shut an irrigation sluice gate.

In the eastern port district of Trincomalee, the rebels fired at the Army's Vilgamvehera camp at 7:30 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) on Friday.

However, Samarasinghe said that overnight attacks had caused no military casualties.

Defense officials said that four bombs weighing five kilograms each were found inside a bag thrown on a garbage dump in Trincomalee.

The police and Army joint search party also recovered a claymore mine at Veppankulam, Vvauniya in the north Friday morning. The mine was aimed at targeting the troops.

Since the breakdown of Geneva talks over the weekend the north and east had seen several incidents of violence in the continuation of the deterioration of the situation in the embattled regions.

The two sided failed to agree for future dates following the breakdown of Geneva talks on Oct. 28-29 over the dispute relating to the A9 highway.

The Tigers insisted on re-opening of the only highway linking the northern Jaffna peninsula with the south of the country. The government said the decision for closure was taken on consideration of national security risks.

Source: Xinhua