COLOMBO, 19 September 2006 — The bodies of 11 Muslim men hacked to death were found in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday, police said as Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces blamed each other for the massacre.

The bodies were later buried in the farming village of Pottuvil yesterday as the Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan forces blamed each other for the massacre.

The victims were laborers working on an irrigation project in the eastern Ampara district and had been killed by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“The Tiger terrorists have massacred 11 Muslim civilians who had gone to repair an anicut (minor irrigation dam),” the statement said.

The Tigers denied involvement and said it was the work of government forces. “The LTTE condemns the massacre of 11 Muslim workers,” the Tigers said in a statement sent here from their political headquarters in the northern rebel-held town of Kilinochchi.

The statement said the massacre took place in a Sri Lankan government controlled area where there is a military camp.

“The Sri Lankan military is adopting its long tradition of blaming the LTTE for the atrocities it commits,” the Tigers said.

The military insisted that the killings were the work of the Tigers. “This act by the Tiger terrorists indicate that not only are they out to obstruct and sabotage the reconstruction... but are also prepared even to massacre those (who) are engaged in any humanitarian work,” the ministry said.

Muslim community leaders here demanded an immediate investigation.

The LTTE has previously been accused of killing members of the Muslim community in the volatile multiethnic east of the island.

The massacre came a day after the navy and the air force bombed and sank a suspected Tiger gunrunning ship off the coast of the Ampara district.

The ministry said the unidentified ship failed to obey warnings to stop and was trying to get away prompting the military attack. The ministry released video footage from a spy plane that showed a vessel going up in flames with a series of onboard explosions. It was not clear how many people were onboard or what happened to them.

Meanwhile, two soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in the embattled northern peninsula of Jaffna on Sunday evening, the ministry said.

One soldier was shot dead and the other was killed in a mine explosion, the ministry said, adding that three civilians, including an infant, were gunned down in the Trincomalee district.

The new wave of violence gripped Sri Lanka even as peace broker Norway moved to arrange face-to-face talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers early next month in Oslo.

Both sides agreed last week to work to salvage a truce in place since February 2002.

The validity of the cease-fire has come under question after more than 1,500 people died in an upsurge of tit-for-tat violence in the past 10 months.