Rebel mortar fire injures civilians in Sri Lanka's northeast

At least 3 civilians including a child were injured when the Tamil Tiger rebels fired mortars at a northeastern village, defense officials said Sunday.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired mortars landed at Ethavatunuwewa village in Welioya, a northeastern border village around 2 a.m local time Sunday (2030 GMT).

Officials said the mortar landed on a bunker housing civilians located close to a military detachment. Meanwhile, the death toll on Saturday's claymore mine explosion in Jaffna peninsula had risen to 4, officials said.

Three soldiers and a civilian were the victims when the LTTE claymore hit a passenger bus taking soldiers on leave Saturday morning. The clashes came amidst a visit by the senior defense hierarchy to the eastern province. The top defense civil servant Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is the brother of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and the military top brass visited Maavil Aru, Sampur and Vakarai on Saturday to thank the troops for gaining areas from rebel control.

The recent spate of military clashes in the east began when the LTTE forcibly shut down the Maavil Aru sluice gate depriving water to some 15,000 people.

The troops in late July last year began an advance to Maavil Aru, the first such ground advance since the 2002 ceasefire came into force.

After weeks of bloody fighting they opened the sluice gate chasing the Tiger rebels. Then came the military victory at Sampur, the rebel seat of eastern control in early September and in January the government troops annexed Vakarai another LTTE area held over a decade.

The military clashes have come in spite of calls by the international community on both parties to get back on the negotiating table. More than 67,000 people have been killed in the island's separatist armed conflict since the mid 1980s.

Source: Xinhua