Tigers kill 7 Karuna wing supporters in Batticaloa

In fresh bloodletting in Sri Lanka’s troubled eastern district of Batticaloa, gunmen of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) kil...

In fresh bloodletting in Sri Lanka’s troubled eastern district of Batticaloa, gunmen of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killed seven people suspected to be supporters of the rival faction.

The Tiger cadres barged into two homes along the Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa border and shot dead four Muslims, a Tamil man and a Sinhalese, officials said.

The victims have been identified as supporters of the breakaway Karuna faction of the LTTE. A Muslim woman escaped with injuries.

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Earlier in the day, a member of

a rival group was shot at opposite the Red Cross office in Batticaloa, but the man escaped with injuries and was being flown to Colombo for treatment, the military said.

In the second shooting incident, suspected Tiger gunmen killed a rival from a breakaway faction.

The killings are a sequel to clashes which erupted after a split in the Tiger ranks led by senior tiger leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna almost a year ago.

The violence comes as Norway’s Ambassador Hans Brattskar met Tiger leaders to resolve the dispute between the rebels and the government over the distribution of tsunami relief. There had been stepped up attacks in the region and President Chandrika Kumaratunga last week decided to appoint a panel to investigate the escalating violence.

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The LTTE’s main women wing political leader was shot at and wounded in the region on Monday, three weeks after the group’s political wing leader was killed together with five others.