Suspected rebels kill five Sri Lanka soldiers

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed
five Sri Lankan soldiers in a second claymore mine attack in
the island’s north in three days, the military said on Tuesday,
as a surge in violence strains a 2002 truce.

One officer and four regular soldiers were killed in the
attack in the military held town of Jaffna, in Sri Lanka’s far
north, on a peninsular hemmed in by a de facto rebel state.

Tuesday’s attack comes after a separate claymore mine blast
on Sunday killed seven soldiers in the deadliest attack since
the cease-fire and brought the death toll in a spate of attacks
in the island’s north and east to at least 19 since last week.

A claymore is a fragmentation mine that sprays hundreds of
small steel balls up to 250 meters (yards) in a wide arc.

Neither the rebels nor the government were immediately
available for comment.

The government has blamed Sunday’s attack on the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who last month threatened to
resume their struggle for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils
next year unless given wide political powers.

The army has boosted troop numbers on the streets of
Jaffna, where residents say the atmosphere is extremely tense.

Patrols have also been stepped up in the eastern port town
of Trincomalee after two Tamil men were killed and three
abducted Muslim farmers were found slain on Saturday. Officials
say the violence was result of flaring tensions between ethnic
Tamils and Muslims.

Amnesty International on Monday accused both the government
and the Tigers of using human rights as a weapon by failing to
probe the rash of killings, and called for an independent
investigation body.

“It is a grave situation, volatile, ready to implode,”
Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan told reporters late on
Monday during a visit to Sri Lanka. “We think it’s very
important that there be investigation that is independent and
transparent and seen to be.”

“Human rights have become a political weapon, where each
side is trying to put the blame on the other side, and taking
little concrete action to stop the spate of killings,
abductions and harassment,” she added.

Nordic truce monitors have appealed to both sides to halt
the violence, which is steadily eroding the cease-fire. More
than 220 police, military, rebel cadres and civilians have now
been killed since the truce was agreed, the monitors say.

(Additional reporting by Kesara Abeywardena)