Sri Lanka says Tiger rebels kill 3 soldiers,1 rival

COLOMBO, July 13 (Reuters) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead three soldiers and a political rival in northcentral Sri Lanka today, the military said, the latest in a litany of attacks stoking fears of a return to civil war.

Two army patrols were fired on in separate incidents in and around Omanthai on the southern border with the de facto state the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) control in northeast Sri Lanka.

''Two soldiers were killed in a firefight when a patrol was fired upon,'' said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.

''Then when another patrol was patrolling the forward defence line west of Omanthai, they were fired on and one soldier was killed.'' ''It was the LTTE.'' Three other soldiers were injured. There were no details on any rebel casualties. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment.

Police found the corpse of a political rival of the Tamil Tigers dumped in the same district today morning, the second such killing in as many days.

The body of R. Skandarajah Dhavan, a leader of minority Tamil party PLOTE, which fought the state alongside the LTTE before turning to the political mainstream in the late 1980s, was found in the district of Vavuniya. He had been kidnapped late yesterday.

The killing comes just a day after a suspected Tiger gunman shot dead the Jaffna political leader of PLOTE. A rash of attacks and military clashes have killed more than 700 people so far this year, straining a 2002 ceasefire to breaking point.

Sri Lanka's tortuous peace process is deadlocked and teetering on collapse. The government and rebels are sharply divided over the Tigers' demands for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east.

However, the government insists the door is still open for the Tigers to resume peace talks, despite a rash of deadly mine ambushes against the military.

In an apparent concession, the government allowed rebel media coordinator Daya Master to be transported to a Colombo hospital overnight for treatment for a heart condition.

However, while the intensity of attacks has sagged over the past week, many diplomats fear a repeat of the deadly mine ambushes that have wiped out patrols and possibly fresh attacks on the capital, Colombo.

''The situation is not good,'' said one diplomat. ''There are too many attacks.'' Many fear an escalation of violence could spiral out of control and rekindle a civil conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983, which in turn could devastate a 23 billion dollar economy keen to lure foreign tourist dollars.

REUTERS KD VC2230