COLOMBO, Dec 23: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed and killed 13 Sri Lankan sailors in an attack on a naval bus in northern Sri Lanka on Friday in the worst breach of a 2002 ceasefire so far.

Military spokesmen said the rebels used a combination of claymore fragmentation mines — blocks of plastic explosive that blast a hail of ball bearings towards targets — as well as rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and assault rifles to hit a convoy in the northern district of Mannar.

“They laid a deliberate ambush — it was very well carried out,” said an army spokesman. “They fixed four claymores. All of them were blasted.”

“They fired five RPG rounds and then small arms. When we got to the scene we found 12 dead bodies and three wounded, but one of them died.”

Fifteen sailors in a truck travelling with the bus were unhurt, the army said. The rebels were unavailable to comment, but the army said no one else had the capacity to mount such an attack.

Incidents between the military and rebels have been rising since last month when the Tigers threatened a return to war during next year if they did not get concessions from the government.

The rebels want a homeland for the minority Tamil population — something new President Mahinda Rajapake, allied to hardline Marxists and Buddhists who hate the rebels, says he opposes.—Reuters