Sri Lanka attacks raise fears of return to civil war

SUSPECTED Tamil Tigers killed at least seven people in a mine blast and a shooting yesterday, intensifying fears of a return to civil war.

The Sri Lankan navy said five armed Sea Tiger boats, including two suicide craft, approached one of its vessels off the north-eastern coast. When the navy tried to investigate, it was attacked.

Five sailors were hurt.

An army spokesman said a Sea Tiger ship was sunk in the exchange. There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam An army spokesman said a Sea Tiger ship was sunk in the exchange. There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam mix of ethnic majority Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, one sailor and four civilians were killed in a suspected rebel mine attack on a naval foot patrol, the army said.

Seven were wounded in the blast, which occurred as a family was driving by in a motorised rickshaw.

In the same district, police and the army said suspected Tiger gunmen shot dead two laborers and wounded three as they went to collect sand for construction work.

At least 130 have died in violence over the past month, the bloodiest period since the two sides signed a the past month, the bloodiest period since the two sides signed a Nordic truce monitors say there is evidence members of the armed forces are retaliating for mine attacks by killing Tamil civilians.

The government denies that extrajudicial killings are taking place, but a United Nations report released last week said it was not doing enough to stop murders by a breakaway Tamil faction operating in the east known as the Karuna group.