Human rights group Amnesty International has denounced the shelling of a school by Sri Lanka’s military as a senior Tamil Tiger rebel said 60 civilians had been killed in the artillery attack.

AT least 45 Tamils were killed and 125 wounded yesterday when government forces fired artillery and rocket launchers toward a Tamil Tiger rebel-held region in eastern Sri Lanka, a senior rebel official said.

At least 45 Tamils were killed and 125 wounded today when government forces fired artillery and rocket launchers toward a Tamil Tiger rebel-held region in eastern Sri Lanka, a senior rebel official said.

A SUICIDE bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a car carrying Sri Lanka’s third-highest ranking military officer yesterday and blew himself up, killing the general and three other people, officials said.

Sri Lankan air force jets and artillery pounded Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country’s north and east for a second day today, peace monitors said ahead of a mass funeral for 64 people killed a bus bombing blamed on the insurgents.

Sri Lanka's air force today launched a second day of strikes on Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country’s north, a day after a bus bombing blamed on the rebels killed 64 people.

The killing of a senior Tamil Tiger rebel leader was intended to drag Sri Lanka into a “major war,” the Tigers said today as spiralling violence threatened to derail a tenuous truce.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated two mines in eastern Sri Lanka today, killing two soldiers and a policeman, the military said, in continuing violence that threatens to push the island nation back into civil war.

Eight Sri Lankan sailors missing after their vessel was destroyed in an explosion blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels are presumed dead, the navy said today.

A breakaway Tamil Tiger faction said it has offered its rival mainstream rebel group a ceasefire ahead of the Tigers’ talks with the government, hoping to bring Sri Lanka permanent peace.