Army soldiers stand guard on a road in Vavuniya, July 24, 2007. Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed and killed four village policemen in the restive northern district of Vavuniya before dawn on Tuesday, the military said, the latest in a spree of deadly attacks on security forces in the area.
Separatist Tamil militants launched a pair of attacks against government troops in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing nine soldiers in a roadside bombing and four village guards in a raid on their bunker, the military said.
The violence came just days after the government held a lavish ceremony celebrating its recapture of eastern Sri Lanka after 13 years of rebel control there. Military officials have said the Tamil Tigers, which still control parts of northern Sri Lanka, have been trying to launch new attacks in retaliation.
In the deadliest attack, assailants detonated an bomb or land mine along a road Tuesday as a bus carrying soldiers passed by in northern Vavuniya district, bordering rebel-controlled territory, military officials said.
The blast tore through the bus, killing nine soldiers and injuring eight others, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a military spokesman.
Hours earlier, a group of Tamil fighters armed with hand grenades attacked a bunker in the Vavuniya area, killing four village guards, said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.
Village guards are recruited from ethnic Sinhalese villages bordering rebel areas in northern Sri Lanka to protect their homes against attack.
Two soldiers were wounded in the early morning confrontation, and troops launched an operation to hunt down the attackers, he said.
Tamil Tiger officials did not answer repeated phone calls from The Associated Press.
The attacks came a day after the military said it had killed four guerrillas trying to infiltrate government-controlled Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka at the Muhamalai border post, the military said.
Tamil Tiger rebels have waged a separatist war against the state since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils who have suffered decades of discrimination from majority Sinhalese-controlled governments.
More than 70,000 people have died in the more than two decades of fighting.
The violence has worsened in the last 20 months, with over 5,000 fighters and civilians killed in clashes, assassinations and air strikes, despite a 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire.
Neither side has withdrawn from the agreement fearing international isolation, but both have publicly declared the truce meaningless.
(http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200707241421.htm)
