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Foreigners leave Jaffna peninsula

Six soldiers killed in blast; Tigers free policeman

COLOMBO: A bomb killed six Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded 11 on Saturday as they cleared up after fierce fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels in the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula, a military source said.

The improvised device exploded as soldiers maintained their defences on the frontline at Muhamalai on the peninsula where 11 days of battles left some 650 rebels and soldiers dead.

``Troops were on an operation clearing bunker lines when an IED [improvised explosive device] went off and six soldiers were killed and 11 injured,'' said the source from Jaffna.

The authorities said the rebels had left booby traps and improvised explosives behind after a failed attempt to capture the peninsula by sea-borne rebels that dealt a further blow to a 2002 ceasefire. The majority of the peninsula is held by Government forces who reported no major overnight clashes as the Red Cross prepared to ferry out 158 foreigners and three seriously ill Sri Lankans trapped by the fighting.

Up to 500 foreigners, including aid workers and foreign passport holders of Sri Lankan origin, were waiting to leave the peninsula which is cut off by road from the rest of Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, a policeman was released on Saturday after being held for nearly a year by Tamil Tigers as he pursued a suspected British paedophile into rebel-held territory, ceasefire monitors said. The officer and two others were seized in September 2005 after they went into the jungle and crossed into the northern Mannar district. The two other men were released earlier this year. The latest release followed a request from Ulf Henricsson, the outgoing head of the team monitoring the crumbling 2002 ceasefire. — AP

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