Tigers kill 8 rivals as Norway makes fresh peace move

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said they killed the eight men at a "safe house" of the breakaway faction of renegade regional commander, V. Muralitharan, who is better known as Karuna.

The Tiger officials said a government soldier, believed to be a military intelligence officer, was among the eight men killed at Kottawa, a suburb of the capital, but the army denied one of their men had been involved.

The guerrillas gave the name of the military intelligence officer as "Dhammika," but a military spokesman disclaimed any involvement with the victims.

"There doesn't appear to have been any struggle and the victims seemed to have been killed in their sleep," a police official said. "This could have been an inside job or the work of an infiltrator."

"The bomb disposal squad is now checking the house where the men were killed," a police spokesman at the scene told photographers, who were not allowed immediate access.

Among the eight people killed were top aides of Karuna, rebel sources said.

Karuna led an unprecedented split in the Tigers in March and went underground five weeks later, after disbanding some 5,000 to 6,000 combatants under him.

His fate remains unknown and the military has denied it was providing him with safe haven despite an earlier government admission that sections of the security forces may be colluding with the rebel renegade.

Since then there have been internecine clashes between the two groups, undermining peace broker Norway's attempts to bring the Tigers and Colombo to the table and end 32 years of ethnic strife that has claimed over 60,000 lives.

Norway was set to launch a fresh bid to salvage the faltering peace process with a visit here by Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, who was due to arrive later Sunday, diplomats said.

Helgesen is to hold talks with Sri Lankan government leaders and Tamil Tiger rebels, Norwegian diplomats said.

"Norway is very concerned about the deteriorating security situation and the escalating attacks," a diplomatic source said.

Sri Lankan officials said they expected Helgesen to try to finalise an agenda for peace talks, which has been the main sticking point for getting the negotiations off the ground.

On Friday hundreds of activists carried a coffin containing the body of a slain Tamil politician to the Norwegian embassy to stage a demonstration that organisers said was aimed at reminding Oslo to remain neutral in the stand-off.

The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), a constituent member of Sri Lanka's minority government, held the protest with the leftist People's Liberation Front, which is a key ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.