COLOMBO, Aug. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The Sri Lankan military has accused the Tamil Tiger rebels of carrying out an attack on government troops, the state radio said Saturday.

    Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation said the military believes that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were responsible for attacking an army officer and a soldier at Kanyakerni, north of the eastern town of Batticaloa in early hoursof Saturday.

    The two army men had been traveling on a motorcycle when they came under a grenade attack by the LTTE rebels and both suffered injuries, the radio added.

    In the same area 24 hours earlier two of the top LTTE rebels were killed allegedly by the group belonging to the LTTE's renegade eastern commander known as Karuna.

    The violence in the east of the country has escalated ever since Karuna broke ranks with the LTTE in March this year.

    In another incident of violence elsewhere in the east a police sergeant was shot dead by an unknown group at Kalmunai on Friday night.

    The government and the LTTE have been observing a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire since the two sides signed a truce agreement in February 2002. The truce agreement has been largely held despite occasional clashes between the two sides. Enditem