All of the attacks occurred while the officials were in moving motorcades, leading the military to speculate that information about VIP convoys was being passed on.

The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east for the country's 3.1 million ethnic Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

The nearly two-decade civil war eased in 2002 when Norway brokered a cease-fire, but the truce has recently come under serious threat with near-daily violence. At least 3,689 combatants and civilians were killed in fighting last year, according to the Defense Ministry's latest figures.

Before the cease-fire, the conflict claimed the lives of about 65,000 people and displaced another 1.6 million. Discuss this story Published: Tue Jan 2 12:22:03 EST 2007

Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Sri Lanka's air force said it bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel naval base in the country's northwest on Tuesday, but a guerrilla spokesmen said the air raid killed 15 civilians, including four children, in a fishing village.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said the bombs fell on the village of Padahuthurai near Iluppaikkdavai in northwest Sri Lanka's Mannar district, killing at least 15 civilians _ including four children _ and wounding 35 others. Ilanthirayan spoke from the rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi.

An air force spokesman, Grp. Cap. Ajantha Silva, told a news conference that the planes targeted a base of the Sea Tigers, the naval wing of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

``We are very sure about the target, that it was a Sea Tiger base, in fact the area's main Sea Tiger base,'' Silva said.

``Whenever we attack their camps and bases they come up this type of story,'' Silva said of the rebel claim that the victims were civilians and not Sea Tiger members.

The air force also targeted rebel mortar positions in eastern Batticaloa district, Silva said.

Rebel spokesman Ilanthirayan said the death toll in the Mannar raid was likely to rise because 26 of the 35 wounded people were in serious condition.

He said 25 of the 30 houses in the village had been destroyed.

There was no way to independently verify the conflicting claims.

Silva said the planes had successfully hit the rebels' mortar positions in the air raids in Batticaloa, a hotbed of violence between the rebels and military.

In a separate incident, two Sri Lankan police officers were wounded when suspected rebels detonated a roadside bomb in northern Vavuniya on Tuesday, military spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.

The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east for the country's 3.1 million ethnic Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

Sri Lanka's civil war eased in 2002 when Norway brokered a cease-fire, but the truce has recently come under serious threat with near-daily violence. At least 3,689 combatants and civilians were killed in fighting last year, according to the Defense Ministry's latest figures.

Before the cease-fire, the conflict claimed the lives of about 65,000 people and displaced another 1.6 million. Discuss this story Published: Tue Jan 2 07:47:06 EST 2007

Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Suspected Tamil rebels detonated two roadside bombs in northern Sri Lanka on Monday killing three security personnel, while three military camps in the east came under rebel mortar fire, the Defense Ministry said.

Separately, three Tamil men in their mid-20s were dragged out of their homes in the small eastern town of Valaichchenai and fatally shot, said the area's police chief, M. Vijayanayake.

He declined to speculate who was behind Sunday's slayings or the motive saying an investigation was ongoing. ``We can't say who has done this,'' he said, adding that Tamil Tiger rebels and their main rivals, a splinter faction known as Karuna, are both active in the region.

On Monday, a bomb targeted a military foot patrol in Point Pedro, a small port town on the northern tip of the Tamil-dominated Jaffna peninsula, military spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said. One soldier was killed and two others wounded, he said.

Hours later, suspected rebels detonated a bomb in the northern district of Vavuniya as a police jeep drove by, killing two policemen and wounding another, Samarasinghe said.

``The jeep was carrying food for their colleagues when it got caught in the blast triggered by the terrorists,'' Samarasinghe said.

There was no immediate comment from the rebels, as phone calls remained unanswered.

Earlier on Monday, Tamil rebels fired as many as 20 mortar rounds at three military camps in eastern Batticaloa district, Samarasinghe said.

``We had taken defensive and protective measures and we suffered no casualties,'' he said, adding some of the mortars fell outside the camps, which were well fortified with bunkers.

Samarasinghe said the military retaliated with artillery fire, but he had no information about rebel casualties.

Batticaloa has become a hotbed of violence between the military and separatist rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east for the country's 3.1 million ethnic Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

Sri Lanka's civil war eased in 2002 when Norway brokered a cease-fire, but the truce has recently come under serious threat with near-daily violence. At least 3,689 combatants and civilians were killed in fighting last year, according to the Defense Ministry's latest figure.

Before the cease-fire, the conflict claimed the lives of about 65,000 people and displaced another 1.6 million. Discuss this story Published: Mon Jan 1 10:35:55 EST 2007