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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Sri Lanka shells kill civilians | Sri Lanka shells kill civilians |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Eight civilians have been killed by mortar fire on villages in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka. | Eight civilians have been killed by mortar fire on villages in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka. |
| The Sri Lankan military blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for the attacks, saying two children were among the dead and 18 other people were wounded. | The Sri Lankan military blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for the attacks, saying two children were among the dead and 18 other people were wounded. |
| The Tigers said the army fired the shells from a military camp. | The Tigers said the army fired the shells from a military camp. |
| Despite a ceasefire in place on paper, Sri Lanka has been sliding back towards civil war, with more than 4,000 people killed in the past 15 months. | Despite a ceasefire in place on paper, Sri Lanka has been sliding back towards civil war, with more than 4,000 people killed in the past 15 months. |
| Counter claims | |
| The army has been carrying out intensified operations against rebel bases in the east. | |
| It said the mortar fire that struck the settlements came from the Tamil Tiger base at Thoppigala. | |
| Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe told the Associated Press news agency: "We are left with no option, but to intensify our operations to silence their guns." | |
| The pro-Tamil Tiger website TamilNet said the mortar fire had originated from the army's Murakkoddaanchaenai camp. | |
| It said six shells were fired and eight houses were damaged. | |
| It named the eight dead, listing two two-year-old girls and two boys aged 18 or under. Three of the children were from the same family, it said. | |
| It said a ninth civilian had since died of wounds. | |
| The army and the rebels regularly blame each other for attacks and the claims often cannot be independently verified. | |
| The latest deaths came in a week of increasing attacks. | |
| On Thursday, Sri Lankan navy troops sunk three Tamil Tiger boats off the island's north-east coast, killing at least 15 rebels, the military said. | |
| On Tuesday, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed himself and at least seven others in an attack on an army camp in Batticaloa district, the army said. | |
| On Monday the rebels carried out their first aerial attack. | |
| At least one light plane bombed an air force facility next to the international airport near the capital, Colombo. |