COLOMBO, Jan 14: Scandinavian truce monitors were hit by a bomb attack on Saturday as violence escalated in Sri Lanka and security forces found more deadly mines aimed at them.

The pre-dawn bomb attack against the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) damaged four vehicles and caused no casualties, but in the island’s north two sailors were killed, the ministry said.

A ministry official said that troops also found another claymore mine rigged up on a lamp post while the airforce found a pressure mine planted near a base in the east.

“This is the first time we found a pressure mine in recent times,” the official said. “It was aimed at an airforce convoy, but troops managed to detect it on time.”

The attack on the Scandinavian monitors came after they pointed fingers at both Sri Lanka’s government and Tamil Tiger rebels for violence that threatens to push the island back to war.—AFP