Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed 10 soldiers and wounded eight yesterday when they set off a powerful landmine in the Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, a military official said.
The soldiers were ambushed with a Claymore mine at Puloly in the peninsula, where 18 soldiers were killed in two similar attacks earlier this month, the official said when contacted by telephone.
"The soldiers were in a convoy transporting lunch for their colleagues when they were hit," the official said.
Four days ago, the Tigers were accused of another ambush in the northwest of the island, killing at least 15 sailors and wounding an equal number.
The latest killings came as the troubled regions were gripped by a work stoppage to protest the Christmas Day assassination of a Tamil legislator.
Shops and offices were shut as a mark of respect for MP Joseph Pararajasingham, 71, who was gunned down just after he received Holy Communion at a Catholic church in the eastern town of Batticaloa, residents said.
A group known as the Pongu Thamil Association had issued leaflets in the troubled regions asking residents to observe a token strike yesterday to protest the assassination, local officials said.
The officials said the group was widely believed to be a front of the Tigers.
Residents had put up black flags as a sign of protest against the killing, which the rebels blame on the military and the government blames on the Tigers themselves.
The Tamil Tigers were planning to take the legislator's coffin to the rebel-held north of the island and return to his home in the district of Batticaloa for a burial tomorrow, local military officials said.
Pararajasingham documented human-rights violations in eastern Sri Lanka during the 1990s and brought them to the attention of the international community, the private North East Secretariat On Human Rights said.
RSS