COLOMBO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Tamil Tigers kept up pressure on the government forces in the eastern Trincomalee district Wednesday with attacks against four Army camps, said Sri Lankan defense officials.

Photo taken July 29, 2006 show the government troops of Sri Lanka. (Xinhua Photo)

    From 2 a.m. (2030 GMT, Tuesday) the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels fired artillery shells at four separate army camps at Kattaparichchan, Pachchanoor, Pahala Thoppur and Mahindapura with some of the shell fire even reaching the Muttur jetty, resident said on the telephone.

    The Wednesday's attacks came after the Tigers attacked the Trincomalee harbor with artillery fire on Tuesday afternoon, in which at least four sailors died.

    "The LTTE began firing at the camps using artillery and mortars but when the military responded they backed down", a spokesman for the national security media center located in the capital Colombo said.

    At least 20 civilians had been admitted to the main hospital in Trincomalee, officials said, adding, however, that no casualty figures were available.

    The defense officials in the capital denied the rebel claims that the LTTE had overrun the Kattaparichchan military camp, and declared that they were in full control of the Muttur jetty area.

    A policeman at Muttur police said that at least 12 policemen had been injured by the rebel fire.

    The fighting in the Trincomalee district was sparked off by the current spat between the rebels and the government over the shut down sluice gate.

    The government forces began an advance into the rebel area at Verugal in the Trincomalee district on Sunday and are still trying to reach there in the face of heavy resistance form the rebels.

    The fighting has overshadowed the fragile Norwegian-backed ceasefire, and the two sides, however, keep on denying claims that a full-scale war had returned to the island's north and eastern provinces for the first time since the truce accord of February 2002. Enditem