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20-09-2006

Three killed in Sri Lanka's northeast, curfew imposed

COLOMBO (AFP) - Three people were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northeast Sri Lanka, police said, and a curfew was put in place in a nearby town following an earlier massacre of 10 Muslim men.

The three men were shot dead in two separate incidents in the Trincomalee district on Wednesday evening, police said, adding that they suspected Tamil Tiger rebels were involved.

There was no immediate word from the Tigers, but police in the eastern town of Pottuvil imposed a curfew following tension two days after the massacre of the 10 men.

"There was a clash between a mob and police commandos," a local police officer in the area said by telephone on Wednesday.

He said the police opened fire on a group of Muslims who mobbed a police Special Task Force jeep and at least four people were wounded. The curfew was ordered after the shooting.

Local residents accused the Special Task Force of killing the 10 men, while the government blamed the Tigers for the massacre. The government on Tuesday ordered an investigation.

A new wave of violence has come as peace broker Norway moved to arrange face-to-face talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers early next month in Oslo.

Both sides agreed last week to try to salvage a collapsing truce in place since February 2002. More than 1,500 people have died in an upsurge of tit-for-tat violence in the past 10 months.

Tamil rebels have waged a drawn-out insurgency for a separate ethnic homeland in Sri Lanka, a majority Sinhalese nation. More than 60,000 people have died since the rebellion began in 1972.

Source-AFP