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3 Tamils dies

attacking

police posts

COLOMBO: A Tamil Tiger rebel area leader and two other rebels were killed in simultaneous attacks on three police stations in east Sri Lanka, the military said on Friday.

The area leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who was identified as Achchudan, was killed during attacks which were "successfully repulsed", the military said.

The attacks on police stations at Pillayarady, Sathurukondan and Urani in Batticaloa district began just before midnight on Thursday and lasted into Friday morning.

The military said two policemen suffered minor injuries in those raids, but that at least eight government soldiers were wounded in a Tamil Tiger guerrilla ambush early on Friday in north central Sri Lanka.

LTTE rebels opened fire on an armoured personnel carrier after it missed a landmine they set off, military sources said.

The Ministry of Defence said another security forces vehicle was attacked "with small arms and claymore mines" at Paymaduwa, about 30 km (18 miles) northwest of the ancient capital of Anuradhapura. It said six soldiers were wounded.

The rebels are fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east. The government says more than 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict since it began in 1983.-Reuter