COLOMBO, April 12: Tigers shot dead seven Sinhalese, including a boy and six women, on Thursday evening in the northern Vavuniya district, police and military confirmed. The incident took place hours after three Tamils were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Vavuniya, area sources said.

According to defence sources, an armed group of LTTE cadres had stormed the village around 4:30pm and killed the members of two families inside their homes.

The Tamil Tigers, usually eager to deny its attacks on civilians, did not formally issue any statement with regard to the attack which analysts say would raise ethnic tensions during the usually festive traditional Sinhalese and Tamil New Year falling on Friday and Saturday.

Military spokesperson Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said they had taken control of the A5 road linking the eastern town of Chenkaladi and central Sri Lanka.

The latest military takeover comes after two days of relentless fighting, with the government military vowing to completely push the LTTE out of the eastern region.

“We have gained control of the east. We have to just make sure in the next few weeks that there will be no room for terrorism so that the Tamil civilians can resettle in their homes,” Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told Dawn.