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Two soldiers hurt in claymore attack in Sri Lanka

Two Sri Lankan soldiers were injured on Monday, one critically, in a fourth claymore fragmentation mine attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in just over a week.

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COLOMBO: Two Sri Lankan soldiers were injured on Monday, one critically, in a fourth claymore fragmentation mine attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in just over a week.   

The attacks have led to fears that the island's two-decade civil war could resume after over three years of a shaky truce.    The mine detonated as a foot patrol checked a section of road near the eastern town of Batticaloa that a military convoy was due to drive along later on Monday, police said.   

The blast comes after separate attacks on military patrols earlier this month killed 14 soldiers in the deadliest incidents since the 2002 ceasefire.   

"The patrol was on a road clearing detail when the claymore exploded," said Batticaloa Superintendent of Police D.D. Ranasinghe. "They have been admitted to hospital."   

A claymore is a fragmentation mine that sprays hundreds of small steel balls up to 250 metres (yards) when detonated.   Military spokesman Brig. Nalin Witharanage blamed the latest attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have threatened to resume their armed struggle next year unless new President Mahinda Rajapakse agrees to give them an ethnic homeland in the north and east - which he refuses to do.   

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on Monday's attack or on a Japanese offer to host emergency peace talks with the government. But the rebels have warned the government it faces its last opportunity to avert a return to a war that killed over 64,000 people, and have threatened to use all available resources to fight.   

Analysts say the Tigers have used the ceasefire to regroup and rearm, and say the fact they ruined the hopes of Rajapakse's moderate rival during November's presidential election with a boycott that scared hundreds of thousands of Tamils from voting, shows they are not ready for a lasting peace deal.

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