Eight people were shot dead at a Tamil Tiger safe house near the Sri Lankan capital on Sunday in an attack blamed on the months-old split in the senior ranks of the rebel leadership.
The Tamilnet Web site said those killed were supporters of renegade Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, known as "Karuna", and included one of his deputies.
"The killings are confirmed, but we can't say who is dead and who is responsible," a police official told Reuters. Tamilnet said the assailants were believed to be gunmen from the main faction of the LTTE.
It also said a Sri Lankan military intelligence official was also among the dead, but police denied this.
"The directorate of military intelligence of the army headquarters categorically denies the army's involvement in the above incident and the Sri Lanka army further assures that no intelligence operative is among the dead," the police said in a brief statement.
The police official said the killings took place at a residence believed to be a Tamil rebel safe house in Kottawa, an outer suburb of Colombo.
Residents said they heard bangs a few hours before dawn on Sunday, but thought it was fireworks set to stop monkeys from raiding orchards.
They said the house - a plush double-storey building set in a rubber plantation and surrounded by a two metre brick wall - had been rented about two weeks ago by a man believed to be a key Karuna associate.
Karuna, one of the most senior Tamil commanders, split from the LTTE earlier this year, prompting a crisis in the group, which has been fighting for decades in a war that has claimed over 64,000 lives.
SRI LANKAN MP REFUSED ENTRY TO INDIA:
A Sri Lankan MP and a strong supporter of the Tamil Tiger rebels was denied entry to India and sent back to his country from the airport in southern Madras city, police said Sunday.
M.K. Eelavendan, who represents the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tamil National Alliance in the Sri Lankan parliament, flew in from Colombo on Saturday afternoon and was sent back by late night. He was due to attend a World Tamil Confederation conference in Bangalore on Sunday.
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