Three migrant workers from Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese community were gunned down in an open field in the town of Vavuniya.
VAVUNIYA: At least 10 people have died in fresh violence in Sri Lanka, officials said on Thursday, despite an agreement among the island's warring parties to talk peace.
Three migrant workers from Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese community were gunned down in an open field in the town of Vavuniya, police said.
The town borders territory held in the island's north by rebels from the minority Tamil population.
"We initially suspected the victims were local Tamils, but other labourers have now identified them as those who came here looking for work," a police official said.
The defence ministry blamed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group for the workers' killings.
The ministry also said rebels shot dead a civilian in nearby Trincomalee district Thursday, adding commandos repulsed a guerrilla attack there and killed two rebels.
Two bomb blasts in Vavuniya on Wednesday wounded 18 people, including two soldiers.
Meanwhile three soldiers died in two skirmishes late Wednesday on the Jaffna peninsula, and a fourth was killed in a mortar bomb attack in Trincomalee district, the ministry said.
The violence occurred despite peacebroker Norway's announcement earlier this week that Sri Lanka's government and the rebels had agreed to unconditional talks.
The government said on Wednesday it would attend the talks, scheduled for next month, in a bid to halt escalating violence that has left over 1,500 people dead since December and shredded a truce agreed in 2002.
The Tamil rebels are fighting for an independent homeland. More than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's bitter ethnic conflict since 1972.
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