COLOMBO, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government here Wednesday said that retaliatory air raids on Tamil Tiger territory in the east will be continued if the rebels continue to carry out acts of terror against the government troops.

    Keheliya Rambukwella, the Minister of Policy Implementation and the government's defense spokesman said "the air attacks will be continued if the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) continue to behave in this fashion."

    He was referring to Tuesday's mid day suicide attack on the island country's Army chief Sarath Fonseka in Colombo.

    Military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the air raids on LTTE positions in the eastern port district of Trincomalee started Tuesday evening were continued Wednesday morning.

    "These were retaliatory attacks on selected targets," Samarasinghe said, adding that he was unable to give information on casualty figures arising out of the attacks as all the targets were in the LTTE held areas in the Trincomalee district.

    Samarasinhe said mortar attacks carried by the LTTE around 07:30 a.m. on Wednesday (0200 GMT) killed three civilians and injured another 11 people.

    The government troops started the air raids in Trincomalee on Tuesday several hours after the blast which injured Fonseka and 27 others and killed nine people.

    The government spokesman and Media Minister Anura Yapa said the government was still committed to the Norwegian backed ceasefire.

    "Despite continued brutal terror attacks by the LTTE, we have conveyed to the Norwegians, and the co-chairs (U.S., Japan, Norway and the European Union) of the peace process our willingness to have peace negotiations," Yapa said.

    The attempt on Fonseka was the culmination of a series of attacks blamed on the LTTE since April 7.

    Giving figures, Samarasinghe the military spokesman said 56 soldiers and 32 civilians had been killed since April 7.

    The escalation of violence led to the cancellation of the truce talks in Geneva scheduled on April 24-25 and analysts rule out the possibility of the resumption of negotiations at least for a considerable period of time. Enditem