Suspected Tamil rebels attack office of rival group in Batticaloa

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels hurled a hand grenade into the office of a rival Tamil group yesterday in Sri Lanka's east, killing one person and wounding four others, officials said.

Yesterday's violence was the latest in a string of attacks in eastern Sri Lanka since a renegade rebel group led a split from the main Tamil Tiger group last year. About a dozen people have been killed in the past week, with most of the victims believed to be anti-rebel activists.

In the latest incident, assailants tossed a grenade into the office of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam in Batticaloa, 220 kilometres east of the capital, Colombo, party official Subramaniam Bahirathan said.

A 40-year-old party activist was killed, while four other members were wounded, he said.

"We think LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is behind this attack, we only have to blame them," Bahirathan said.

Like the Tamil Tigers, the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam was also engaged in an armed struggle against the Sri Lankan government to carve out a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils accusing majority Sinhalese of discrimination.

However, it gave up violence and joined mainstream politics in 1987.

More than 65,000 people were killed in the civil war until Norway brokered a ceasefire in 2002. But peace talks broke down in April 2003 when the Tigers withdrew demanding more autonomy to Tamil areas.