Sri Lankan troops capture rebel position, 16 killed

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops have killed 16 Tamil Tiger rebels and captured a rebel-held position in the island's north, officials said on Saturday.

A military spokesman said 17 people were injured on Saturday when Tamil Tiger rebels threw a hand grenade into a crowded street in northern Sri Lanka.

"Seventeen civilians, including six females and two children, were injured when LTTE terrorists lobbed a hand grenade into a crowded street in Vavuniya," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

Doctors said the death toll in Friday's suicide attack in the island's capital Colombo had risen to 11 from 10. Most of the dead were police officers.

They were killed when a suicide bomber crashed his motorbike into a police bus.

The military said 16 Tamil Tigers were killed on Friday in fighting in northern Jaffna, Vavuniya, Polonnaruwa and Mannar. Four government soldiers were injured in the clashes.

The military also said troops had captured a rebel-held area in the northwestern district of Mannar on Saturday after six days of fighting.

Fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January, though a renewed civil war has been raging since 2006.

The LTTE, which is fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island, has not commented on the latest fighting.