Women die in Sri Lanka attack
2007-04-12 17:47
Colombo - Sri Lanka's military said on
Thursday gunmen who appeared to be Tamil Tiger rebels charged
into a village firing wildly, killing six women and one man.
"They were firing indiscriminately and, due to that, there
were seven civilians killed," said Lieutenant Colonel Upali
Rajapakse, spokesperson for the media centre for national
security.
Villagers were able to identify the shooters as Tamil
Tigers by their uniforms, he said, and the incident was part of
a campaign to target civilians that included two claymore mine
attacks on public buses in the past 10 days in the same area,
the restive district of Vavuniya.
The Tigers could not be reached for comment on the latest
incident, but have denied responsibility for the bus bombings,
asserting that the government was behind them in a bid to harm
the Tigers' image.
Since 1983, about 68 000 people have died in fighting
between government and rebels, known officially as the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Tigers are fighting to create an independent state for
ethnic minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east.