The Sri Lankan government Monday strongly condemned the killing by the Tamil Tiger rebels of 11 Muslim civilians engaged in repairing a sluice gate in the Eastern Province.

"The assassination of these 11 innocent civilians is a deliberate act of terrorism, particularly against the civilian Muslim population," said the Information Department in a press release.

The mutilated bodies of the victims, who were all brutally hacked to death, were found Monday morning in the sluice gate area in Rodwella, Pottuvil, about 300 km east of the capital Colombo.

The police Special Task Force (STF) which maintains the security in the area blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels for the attack, which occurred Sunday night in a place seven km into the jungle.

The victims had been hired on a daily basis by a local contractor and had been engaged in repairing the sluice gate, which provides water to thousands of civilians in the area.

"The incident is reminiscent of another brutal attack on Muslim civilians in 199O, when the LTTE shot to death 103 civilians at prayers at the Jumma and Hussainia mosques in (nearby) Kathankudy region," said the release.

"The government in no uncertain terms deplores this heinous act of terrorism and extends its sympathy to the families of those killed," it added.

The Tiger rebels and the Muslims have a history of clashes in the Eastern Province throughout the island's ethnic separatist armed conflict since the mid-1980s.

Source: Xinhua