At least eight Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed in Sri Lanka's troubled Eastern Province in separate incidents, defense officials said Sunday.
Six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed at eastern Ampara district's Kanjikudujiaru area Sunday morning.
The police Special Task Force (STF) encountered them when they launched a search operation to nab the fleeing rebels from Eastern Province, said the police, adding that rebel weapons were also found in the attack.
Two LTTE rebels were killed in the same Ampara district's Wellawali area Saturday night.
Wellawali police said the two rebels were shot dead by the STF as they attempted to attack the STF members in a weapon hideout of the LTTE.
In Northern Province's Mannar district, defense officials said that more civilians have arrived in the government controlled areas from rebel areas in the north.
Clashes between the rebels and the troops are shifting to Northern Province after the government claimed in mid-July that the entire Eastern Province had been free of rebels.
The LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority.
Nearly 70,000 people have died in one of the world's longest running conflicts.
Source: Xinhua
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