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10 killed in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Violence expected to soar in the next few days

COLOMBO: Ten persons including a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and two police officers were killed in sporadic incidents of violence in the east and the north in the last 24 hours.

Diplomatic and political observers here believe that with the dawn of New Year and intensified efforts by the Sri Lanka military to oust the Tigers from the east, violence in the next few days is expected to soar. The SLA has already declared that it is determined to oust the Tigers from Vaharai, the last bastion of the LTTE in the east. According to the military, the operation to oust the Tigers from the region has slowed down due to the presence of a large number of civilians. According to estimates, there were 35,000 to 40,000 internally displaced people in Vaharai. The SLA maintains that over 25,000 have moved out of the Tiger-held areas and crossed over the government controlled areas in the last few weeks.

Caution

"We believe that the Tigers are using civilians as human shield and hence the military is proceeding cautiously. It is a matter of days before we get there and rid the east of the Tiger menace,"a SLA officer said. A statement by the military on Monday said a soldier was killed and two others injured when the LTTE detonated a claymore mine targeting a group of army personnel along the Jaffna-Point Pedro road early in the morning.

It said a claymore attack on a jeep, carrying foodstuff for the police officers, killed two personnel and injured one at a place 150 metres from the road barrier at Settikulam in the afternoon. In another incident the Special Task Force (STF) at Bakmittiyawa in Amparai district recovered four dead bodies of Sinhalese in the morning. "It is believed that the four persons were killed by the LTTE because the victims were cooperating with the STF,"the military said. A group of unidentified gunmen shot dead three youth in Kiran Kovil in the Batticaloa district on Sunday.

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