Sri Lankan Tigers kill ten in blast

An estimated 64,000 people have died in Sri Lanka's 17-year-old civil war

By staff and wire reports

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Tamil Tiger guerrillas have blown up a navy bus in northeastern Sri Lanka, killing at least 10 sailors and wounding 17 others.

The blast is the latest in a series of attacks that have followed in the wake of a Norwegian envoy unsuccessfully trying to broker peace between the government and the Tigers after a gap of five years.

Norway has been acting as a go-between in a bid to bring the two sides together to end nearly two decades of ethnic fighting that have killed an estimated 64,000 people.

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In Wednesday's incident, the bus was destroyed after traveling over a landmine on the main highway leading to the port city of Trincomalee, home to the country's biggest naval base, military officials said.

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The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appeared to have taken advantage of construction along the busy highway to plant the mine, military spokesman Brigadier Sanath Karunaratne told Reuters, adding that eight of those injured were seriously wounded.

Trincomalee, 240 km (150 miles) north east of Colombo, is the administrative capital of the North East Province where the rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil state.

Revenge attack

Norwegian efforts to broker peace have stuck on an Tiger demand for legal recognition

Wednesday's blast may have been in retaliation against a government crackdown earlier in the week, where 16 rebels were killed.

The government offensive came as a surprise since Sri Lanka had appeared keen for a dialogue with the LTTE to seek a settlement of the 17-year-old civil war.

Envoy Erik Solheim left Sri Lanka last week after talks with the government and the Tigers failed to resolve the last big hurdle in the way of direct peace talks, an LTTE demand for legal recognition.

The LTTE say there can be no talks with the government until it has lifted the ban imposed after the group allegedly bombed the Buddhist-majority nation's most revered temple in 1998.

The attack killed 18 people and provoked outrage among the politically powerful Buddhist clergy.

The LTTE has been fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of the Indian Ocean island-nation.

They believe the 3.2 million Tamils can only prosper independently from the Sinhalese, who comprise 14 million of the country's 18 million people.

Reuters contributed to this report.