Sri Lanka says rebel blasts wound 8 in north

Colombo, June 29: Roadside bombs wounded eight people including two school children in Sri Lanka's far north today, the military said, a day after a pro-rebel politician was killed in the restive east.

A type of mine commonly used by Tamil Tiger rebels exploded in the northern district of Vavuniya, wounding four civilians, including two school children aboard a passing school bus, and a soldier, the military said.

In a separate incident, two soldiers and a civilian were hurt in the army-held northern Jaffna peninsula by a bomb targeting a route clearing patrol.

A spokesman for the media centre for national security, who asked not to be identified, said grenade had also exploded in Ampara yesterday night, killing a local government official.

The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were not immediately available for comment, with lines to their stronghold down in the wake of air force bombing raids yesterday.

An estimated 4,500 people have been killed in renewed fighting since last year.

Fighting is now focused on the north, where the Tigers run a de facto state after the government evicted the insurgents from swathes of territory they controlled in the east.

REUTERS

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