Sri Lankan Muslims Found Dead

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The bodies of 11 Muslim civilians have been found in a remote area in eastern Sri Lanka, the military has said.

The bodies of the men, who had apparently gone to repair an irrigation system, were found in Ampara district.

Tamil Tiger rebels were suspected of being behind the attack, army spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said. There was no comment from the rebels.

Months of heavy fighting have displaced more than 200,000 people in Sri Lanka. Hundreds have been killed.

The military says the men had been working on a water project in Ampara on Sunday. When they failed to return home, a team went to investigate on Monday morning and found the bodies.

"They had gone to renovate a sluice gate and went missing. They have been found dead, hacked and chopped," an unnamed military spokesman quoted by the Reuters news agency said.

Another man was injured, but survived the attack.

Ampara district is home to large number of Sri Lanka's Muslim minority - Muslims are the third largest community in the country after the Sinhalese and Tamils.

The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says that Muslims have been caught up in the increasing violence between the government forces and rebels.

Tens of thousands were displaced from the north-eastern town of Muttur in July and August when fighting between the two sides forced them from their homes.

Norway brokered a ceasefire between Sri Lanka's government and the Tamil Tigers in 2002 which is still technically in place, despite the violence.

The two sides held a number of rounds of peace talks until the rebels pulled out in April 2003 saying they were being sidelined.

The government and rebels did meet earlier this year for talks aimed at shoring up the ceasefire, but made no headway.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since the rebels began their fight the 1970s for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east.

PHOTO CAPTION

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have accused government soldiers in concert with paramilitary units of killing nearly 100 civilians in the island's embattled Jaffna peninsula this month. (AFP)

BBC

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