An explosives laden truck driven by a LTTE suicide squad member hit buses transporting Sri Lankan Navy sailors Monday. The death toll in the attack has risen to 99 with 116 others injured. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- The peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appear doomed as the military clashes escalated this week.

    On Wednesday at least two sailors were killed and 15 others injured when the Tamil Tigers launched a suicide attack on a naval base in Sri Lanka's southern port city of Galle, some 112 kilometers from the capital, Colombo.

    Military officers told news agencies that their forces had blown up three rebel boats during the attack, while two navy patrol craft were damaged in the fighting. Fifteen Tamil Tiger rebels were reported killed.

    The attack is the first major strike on a tourist centre by Tiger rebels since a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire was signed in 2002.

    The Colombo government responded by launching air strikes on a village in the eastern district of Batticaloa which rebels claimed killed a woman and two others.

    On Tuesday, the government said that the air force conducted air raids on identified Tamil Tiger targets with the rebel saying one of its radio facilities was destroyed by the bombing.

    The air force said it raided two Tiger bases in Mullaitivu and an identified camp in Mankulam in the north.

    The Tamil Tigers said in a statement that "Sri Lankan Kfir bombers destroyed a transmission tower of the Voice of Tigers radio broadcast located in Kokkavil in the Mullaitiviu district on Tuesday."

    On Monday, the suspected Tiger rebels rammed a truck loaded with explosives into a convoy of Sri Lankan navy buses, ostensibly transporting sailors home for vacation. About 99 navy personnel were reported killed in the attack, and more than 116 were injured in Habarana, 173 km northeast of the capital Colombo.

    "All these people were without weapons and were going on leave," news agencies quoted Sri Lankan military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, as saying, describing the attack as a "cold-blooded massacre."

    Still on Monday, the Tigers said they remained committed to peace talks scheduled for 28-29 October in Geneva, Switzerland.

    Violence noticeably escalated in August, when a dispute over water turned into a much larger conflict. In early August, 15 ethnic Tamils working for the French aid agency Action Against Hunger (ACF) were found murdered in the country's northeast. A pro-Tamil Tiger website blamed the government for the killings. The military denied the accusation.

    Thousands of people reportedly have fled the violence in the northeast.

    Sri Lanka has been paralyzed for 20 years by an ethnic conflict that has left some 70,000 people dead and millions displaced. The LTTE is fighting for more autonomy, greater rights and eventually a separate homeland for the minority Tamils.

    In 2002, Norway brokered a cease-fire between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. For some time it looked like peace talks might be successful, but presidential elections in Sri Lanka last year turned the situation around, as the hardline Mahinda Rajapakse took office with a clear message to the rebels that peace would have to come at a high price.

    So where does that leave peace talks scheduled for 28-29 October in Geneva, Switzerland?

    The Tigers pulled out of the last round of peace talks in Oslo last year, and since then the situation has only worsened. Enditem

    (Agencies)

Related: Blast kills 99 soldiers in Sri Lanka

An explosives laden truck driven by a LTTE suicide squad member hit buses transporting Sri Lankan Navy sailors Monday. The death toll in the attack has risen to 99 with 116 others injured. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    COLOMBO, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in the attack against Sri Lankan Navy personnel blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels has risen to 99 with 116 others injured, a government minister said.

    Keheliya Rambukwella, the minister of Policy Planning and the government's defense spokesman, said that several injured sailors were in critical condition. Full story>>