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Sri Lankan soldier killed by roadside explosive attacks

Two roadside bombs exploded in northern Sri Lanka's Jaffna town yesterday, killing a government soldier and wounding 10, including eight civilians, officials said.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels for the blasts that appeared targeted at military patrols.

One of the bombs, of a type that can be remote controlled, apparently missed its military target and wounded civilians. The other blast hit a military truck, killing a soldier and wounding two others.

Earlier, police had found three Claymore mines believed hidden by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeastern port town of Trincomalee, Samarasinghe said.

The bombs, found late on Monday, "were meant to carry out attacks on our troops in Trincomalee," he said.

Trincomalee is north of Batticaloa, where an airstrike hit a rebel camp on Monday. The area has been the scene of a number of recent clashes between the rebels and military.

"We took the decision to bomb the target ... [which was] an identified Tiger terrorist gathering point," Samarasinghe said of Monday's air attack. "Air force sources confirmed that a large number of Tiger terrorists were killed."

Rasiah Ilanthirayan, a spokesman for the rebels, said no Tiger camps had been hit.

Fighting between the Tigers and security forces has escalated in the past few months as the government stepped up attempts to rout insurgents from parts of the north and east, where they want to establish a separate homeland for the country's minority ethnic Tamils.

The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983, following decades of discrimination under the majority Sinhalese-dominated government.

A 2002 truce still exists on paper, but has virtually collapsed since the resurgence of large-scale fighting last year.
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