By DPA
Colombo : Two civilians and at least 14 Tamil rebels were killed in the northern part of Sri Lanka where guerrillas have been making repeated attempts to infiltrate military-controlled areas, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
The civilians were killed Tuesday when suspected Tamil rebels blew up a roadside claymore mine in Sitthankerny, Jaffna, 390 km north of Colombo.
A group of soldiers passing by were believed to be the targets, and three were injured in the blast.
In three other incidents Tuesday, the military foiled attempts by the rebels to infiltrate Army-controlled areas and killed at least 14 rebels, the spokesman said.
Troops manning forward defence lines in Vilattikulam, Vavuniya, 240 km north of Colombo, killed 10 rebels while preventing two successive attempts by them to break through, he said.
In Omanthai, also in Vavuniya, three more rebels were killed as they attempted to infiltrate military-controlled areas while another rebel was killed in a separate incident, the spokesman said.
In the past weeks, Tamil rebels, who have been waging a separatist campaign for three decades, have made a series of attempts to breach the forward defences lines in the north but all have been foiled by the military, which claims to have killed more than 40 rebels in the attacks.
The Air Force also has been bombing suspected Tamil rebel targets in northern and north-eastern parts of the country, where most members of the Tamil ethnic minority live, while ground troops are holding onto eastern areas that they captured after successive military operations in the past year.
Fighting has escalated during the past 22 months, leaving behind more than 5,200 dead and a Norwegian-backed ceasefire virtually ignored.