Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Sunday attacked an army camp in eastern Sri Lanka with mortars, wounding one soldier and a civilian, while two ethnic minority Tamils were shot dead in the north, authorities said, in the latest violence to threaten a four-year-old cease-fire. Rebels fired mortars at the Selvanagar army camp in Trincomalee district, 215 kilometres northeast of the capital, Colombo, said an official at the Media Centre for National Security, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with policy. He said the army retaliated with mortars, and the exchange of fire lasted nearly half an hour. In the northern peninsula of Jaffna, unidentified men fatally shot two ethnic Tamil civilians in Point Pedro, 300 kilometres north of Colombo, a police official said, without giving further details. TamilNet, a pro-rebel web site, identified the victims as Vaseekaran Navartnam, 25, and Paheerathan Navartnam, 20, and said they worked as auto-rickshaw drivers. They were shot by men riding a motorcycle, it said.
Also on Sunday, police found the bullet-riddled body of a Tamil civilian in Kalkuda, Batticaloa district, 225 kilometres east of Colombo. The areaÂ’s police chief, Maxi Procter, identified the victim as Arumugam Kamalanathan, 23, and said he had been abducted by an armed group on Saturday night from his home.