Sri Lanka rebels kill 9 soldiers in ambush: Military

Colombo, July 24: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers ambushed an army bus killing nine soldiers in the island's restive north today, the military said, the latest in a spree of attacks blamed on the rebels amid renewed civil war.

''A Claymore (mine) exploded targeting a bus carrying troops from Mannar to Vavuniya,'' a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said, declining to be named in line with policy. ''It was definitely the Tigers.'' The attack came hours after suspected rebels shot dead four village policemen in the same district, which in turn came on the heels of a rash of land and sea clashes, ambushes and air raids that have killed an estimated 4,500 people since last year alone.

Reuters>