Two members of the Tamil Tiger rival group were killed Monday night in what the official described as continuous violence in the eastern province.

Two members belonging to the renegade Commander Karuna's group of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were shot dead at Welikanda by suspected mainstream group members who are believed to have forced them out of their homes.

Military officials said the victims' hands were tied behind their backs before being shot.

The killings came just a few hours after an announcement by theSri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's naming two judges to serve on the presidential committee of inquiry into the escalationof violence more particularly attacks against the LTTE members.

Karuna's group and the mainstream cadres have clashed in a bitter internecine war since the renegade Karuna broke ranks with the LTTE mainstream in March last year.

In a separate incident the LTTE announced that their political office located in the eastern town of Batticaloa had come under a grenade attack.

This the police said the fourth such attack on the office during the last six months.

Anbumaran, the chief of the LTTE's political office was quoted by the pro-LTTE website Tamilnet as saying that none of the fifteen cadres present in office at the time of the attack were hurt.

Source: Xinhua