14 killed in Tamil Tiger rebel attacks in Sri Lanka

Ten soldiers and four Civil Defense Force volunteers were killed Tuesday in two separate attacks by the Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka, the Defense Ministry said.

A Civil Defense Force guard point came under attack by small arms and four volunteers were killed before dawn in Vavuniya district, while 10 soldiers were killed and seven injured in the second attack by a claymore bomb shortly after noon in the same district, the ministry said.

The bomb targeted a military convoy ferrying soldiers going home on leave from Mannar, a northwestern coastal town.

There has been fierce fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers in Mannar and Vavuniya in recent days.

Security in the capital Colombo is being tightened with police citing intelligence reports of the possibility of a major terrorist strike.

The ethnic Tamil rebels have been fighting for over three decades for a separate Tamil homeland encompassing the northern and northeastern parts of the Sinhalese-dominated island.