12 soldiers, 4 LTTE men killed in Lanka clashes

COLOMBO: Twelve soldiers and four Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a fierce mortar bomb exchange in Sri Lanka's restive eastern province Friday, military officials said.

The soldiers were killed when the rebels fired mortar bombs at Vakaneri village in the Trincomalee district, a military official said, adding that five troops were wounded in the attack.

 The four Tigers were killed when the military fired back, he said.

 The International Committee of the Red Cross said they were asked by the Tigers to take back the bodies of 12 soldiers and hand them over to government authorities.

“We can confirm that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) approached us to return 12 bodies of soldiers to the army," ICRC spokesman Sukumar Rockwood said.   

He said they were also told of four bodies of Tiger combatants but there was no request to transfer those bodies because they were found within an area held by the guerrillas.   

Military officials said at least five soldiers were also wounded in the mortar bomb exchange.

In a separate incident, a navy sailor was killed in the same province on Friday. The sailor was killed by sniper fire by the Tigers and the navy fired back at the rebels using mortar bombs, the military said.