By Xinhua
Colombo : Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka killed two home guards by exploding a claymore mine in the northeast Friday, while eight guerrillas have been shot dead and five soldiers injured in separate clashes, defence officials said.
The army said that two members of the civil defence force were killed when LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels targeted them by exploding a mine while they were returning after work at Padaviya in the Northern Central Province at 7 a.m.
Padaviya is near the rebel held area in the north, where fighting has been a daily occurrence since mid-September.
The officials said that four LTTE rebels were killed and four soldiers were injured Thursday in a confrontation between the two at the Wanni defence lines.
At Umerasakulam in Mannar district, three more rebels were killed in a counter attack at 5.20 p.m. Thursday, the officials said, adding that one soldier was wounded during the battle.
Another militant was killed in a gunfire exchange with the troops at Nawathkuklam in the Vavuniya district at 11 a.m. Thursday.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence since the end of 2005, making the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement exist only on paper.