August 01, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 16, 1428

COLOMBO, July 31: Three soldiers died in a bomb attack in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, while the military said it had uncovered a new Tamil Tiger weapons cache in the island’s east.

The three security personnel were killed by a roadside bomb set off by suspected rebels in the northern peninsula of Jaffna Tuesday, the military said.

The killings came as the military recovered a large haul of arms, including an anti-aircraft gun, missiles, anti-personnel mines and mortar launchers during search operations in the east on Monday.

The defence ministry said on Tuesday that troops unearthed the weapons while consolidating positions at the newly captured Thoppigala jungles.

Areas in and around Thoppigala had been the scene of heavy fighting in the past few months as the government stepped up a military offensive to flush out the Tigers from their last post in the east.

There was no immediate comment from the Tamil Tiger rebels over the allegations about the blast or weapons haul.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been campaigning for a separate state for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community, in a bloody ethnic conflict that has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1972.—AFP