COLOMBO, Feb 27: The US and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka were injured on Tuesday morning in artillery attacks by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the eastern Batticaloa district.

US ambassador Richard Blake and Italian ambassador Pio Mariani were being flown to Batticaloa in an Air Force helicopter accompanied by the Minister of Disaster Management, Mahinda Samarasinghe and 13 other diplomats for a civilian welfare meeting, military spokesman Upali Rajapakse told Dawn.

The military spokesman said the diplomats were to tour areas in Batticaloa to discuss the resettlement of civilians following military operations in January to takeover LTTE camps in the area left thousands of people homeless.

The two ambassadors were injured by shrapnel and immediately airlifted to hospital, government sources said. The US ambassador was brought to the Colombo general hospital and the Italian ambassador to the Batticaloa hospital, diplomatic sources added.

Doctors discharged the two envoys by Tuesday evening, military sources confirmed.

The US Embassy in Colombo issued a statement saying Blake is ``all right.'' Italian foreign ministry spokesman Pasquale Ferrara said when contacted by telephone that Mariani suffered light shrapnel injuries to the head.

The Tamil Tiger rebels in a statement apologised for the attack claiming they were not aware that foreign diplomats had landed at the military airfield of the Sri Lanka Air Force in Batticaloa.

“We immediately ceased the fire as soon as we were notified of the presence of foreign diplomats under artillery fire by the UN official coordinating security arrangements here in Killinochchi," Ilanthirayan, military spokesperson for the guerillas said referring to the northern district where the LTTE head office is located.

Defence sources said the two ambassadors narrowly escaped being fatally injured by the 122mm shell fire after landing from two Sri Lanka Air Force helicopters. Seven military personnel and a civilian were also injured in the artillery fire, defence authorities said.

“The attack is a deliberate act of terrorism by the LTTE”, defence affairs spokesman Keheliye Rambukwella said dismissing LTTE claims that the artillery attacks were in response to mortar fire from government troops. The Sri Lankan minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama in a statement condemned the attack in the ‘strongest possible terms’ and called on the international community to address the ‘scourge of terrorism’.

The LTTE meanwhile blamed the Mahinda Rajapakse administration for endangering the lives of the diplomats by bringing them to a war zone without informing the rebels.

"We are shocked by the grave negligence of the security arrangements for the diplomats by the Sri Lankan government that has transported the delegation into the artillery launchpads amid the prevailing atmosphere of provocative artillery attacks”, an LTTE statement said stating that the guerilla group did not receive prior information of the arrival of the diplomats.