13 Sri Lankan sailors killed in rebel ambush

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed a naval convoy in north-western Sri Lanka today, killing 13 sailors and injuring at least two others, the navy said.

About 30 sailors were travelling in a bus and a truck toward their base in Mannar district, 135 miles north of the capital, Colombo when they were attacked, said navy spokesman Cmdr. Jayantha Perera.

He said the explosions were initially thought to be land mine blasts, but it was found later that the rebels had triggered a claymore mine and fired rocket propelled grenades, causing a fire in the bus.

Perera said 13 sailors were killed in the attack, which he blamed on the rebels. The Tamil Tigers, however, denied any responsibility.

“The Liberation Tigers were not involved in any activity that breaches the cease-fire agreement,” rebels spokesman Daya Master told The Associated Press by telephone from the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.

“There is no connection whatsoever between us and this attack.”

Also today, suspected rebels fatally shot a Sri Lankan army intelligence agent in the central Sri Lankan town of Nuwara Eliya, 110 miles east of Colombo. It was the first known attack of its kind in the area, said Defence Ministry spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe, who blamed the Tigers for the killing.

The attacks are the most serious violence to threaten the already-shaky 2002 government-rebel cease-fire that halted Sri Lanka’s devastating two-decade war.

Violence has escalated in Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil-majority north-east since rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran threatened to resume his struggle for an independent Tamil nation if the government fails to address grievances of the minority Tamil community.

During this month alone, 20 government soldiers were killed and many more injured in attacks blamed on the rebels.

Security was tightened in Colombo after today’s attack to prevent a possible backlash against minority Tamils.

Armed forces patrolled the streets on motorbikes carrying assault rifles and wearing body armour.

The death of 13 government soldiers in a Tamil Tiger attack in July 1983 triggered anti-Tamil riots in which hundreds were killed and led to hundreds of thousands fleeing the country. The riots drove many Tamil youths into militant independence movements.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels started fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland in the country’s north and east for the island nation’s minority ethnic Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict killed about 65,000 people before the cease-fire.