Three more soldierskilled as violence in Sri Lanka escalates

Colombo: Tamil parliamentarians forced an early adjournment of parliamentary sessions yesterday as attacks against the security forces continued with the killing of three more soldiers and a claymore mine attack on sailors which left 11 of them injured.

The Tamil National Alliance, a proxy of the Tamil rebels, led the protest along with two other parties by sitting across the well of the House and preventing the entry of the speaker who was forced to use another entrance.

But, though the Speaker, W.J.M. Lokubandara, commenced sittings he was not able to conduct the session for more than a few minutes, prompting him to suspend sittings and invite leaders of political parties for a discussion to look into the possibility of continuing sessions.

However, Tamil parties boycotted the meeting and continued with their protests campaign.

The Tamil parties chanted slogans and protested inside parliament blaming the government for the rapidly deteriorating security situation including the death of one of their parliamentary colleagues and civilians.

Eventually the speaker was forced to adjourn sittings in view of the protest.

"We are protesting against the government as they have failed to provide security to the civilians", Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan said.

"We are not worried about what is going on between the government and the LTTE, but our concern is the civilians," he said.

However the party declined to comment about the attacks carried out by the LTTE on the security forces. The protest came as 11 sailors were wounded in a claymore mine explosion yesterday in northeastern Sri Lanka.

Two civilian bystanders were also killed and six others were injured when the Navy allegedly fired in the direction from where the explosion took place.

The claymore mine was set on a bicycle parked on the roadside at Uppuveli, in the port city of Trincomalee, when the sailors were moving in a convoy.

Two soldiers were also killed and one sustained serious wounds in a claymore explosion that took place in Sarasalai in Jaffna district yesterday, police said.

The claymore attack was reported after two civilian dead bodies were recovered yesterday morning in Thenmaradchi.

Tamil rebels have stepped up attacks against security forces in the north and eastern provinces, killing at least 75 security personnel in the past seven weeks while more than 25 rebels and about 30 civilians have also been killed in sporadic incidents.