Sri Lanka's rebel office attacked

Sri Lanka's eastern port city of Trincomalee continued to be in tension while a Tamil Tiger political office had come under attack in the neighboring Batticaloa district killing a woman, police said Sunday.

A political office belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) in the Kaluwanchikudy police area in Batticaloa district was attacked by an alleged gang of the rival Karuna faction on Saturday.

Although no LTTE members had been present in the office at the time, the 65 year old female owner of the building Sinnathamby Annama succumbed to the injuries in the bomb attack, police said.

In the Trincomalee city where communal trouble had been brewing since last week, Neville Wijesinghe, police deputy inspector general said additional strength of 1500 security personnel were deployed there on Saturday night.

Another grenade exploded in the city around 9:30 p.m. local time on Saturday without causing any casualties while a lorry traveling from Colombo transporting cement to the district had come under attack.

The decision to deploy additional security was taken following a visit by military chiefs to the city on Saturday, Wijesinghe said.

A protest was called Monday by local Tamils against the erection of a Buddhist statue by the Three Wheel Taxi Drivers' Association representing the Sinhalese Buddhists in the city.

The protestors, Hindu Tamils, want the statue removed from the city center in the multi-ethnic city.

Source: Xinhua