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Three Civilians killed in Sri Lanka |
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July 30, 2000
COLOMBO (AP) - Suspected Tamil rebels threw handgrenades at policemen conducting security checks in the north,killing three civilians and wounding 10, the government saidSaturday.
Two boys aged nine and 14 were among the dead when two rebels attacked the police post Friday from inside a shop in Thonikkal, a town in the Wanni region, said government spokesman Ariya Rubasinghe. Ten civilians were injured in the explosions, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Colombo, the capital. Police shot and killed the rebels after a chase, Rubasinghe said. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam lost one fighter Friday at Colombuthurai in the northern Jaffna peninsula in a gun battle with government troops, Rubasinghe said. Meanwhile, telephone lines were restored to the battle-torn peninsula for the first time in three months. Sri Lanka Telecom officials said they set up a transmission link Thursday at Mannar, a coastal town 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Colombo. The telephones links were lost after a major battle in April, in which the Tigers seized the strategic Elephant Pass base, which has a transmission link for telephone services. Phone services to Jaffna were also shut down by the government to prevent the rebels from establishing contacts with their fighters. The Tigers are fighting for a separate homeland in the north and east for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. Nearly 62,000 people have been killed in the fighting since 1983. |