Fresh fighting in Sri Lanka hunt

The bus was packed with civilians when it was bombed

Nine people have been shot dead in south-eastern Sri Lanka as police and army commandos hunted for suspected Tamil Tiger rebels who attacked a bus.

Twenty-seven passengers were killed in the attack on Wednesday. Most were shot as they tried to get out of the vehicle after it was hit by a bomb blast.

The army blamed the rebels for the attack, which came on a day when the government formally ended a ceasefire.

Fighting had been going on in parts of the country despite the truce.

Separately, in the north of the country, eight rebels have been killed in fighting around the frontlines that surround Tiger controlled territory, the army said.

The police and army are scouring the jungles of south-eastern Sri Lanka for the group responsible for Wednesday's bus attack.

Late on Thursday night villagers spotted suspicious people with weapons moving through their area and called for help.

When officers and locals went to investigate there was firing in which three civilians were killed and two wounded. A guard was also hurt.

Later another six dead bodies were found not far away. The armed group had disappeared into the darkness.

'Serious doubts'

The military believes they were Tamil Tiger rebels and carried out the attack on Wednesday when a bus was hit by a roadside bomb.

The government says it can defeat the rebels in the battlefield

Most of the 27 people who died survived the blast but were shot as they tried to get away. The attackers also killed six farmers as they retreated.

Meanwhile there have been more confrontations and artillery fire in the north of the island, where the Tigers control a swathe of territory.

The army said its fighter jets had destroyed a rebel base near the northern town of Kilinochchi where Tamil Tiger leaders were meeting on Thursday.

But the pro-rebel TamilNet website said the bombs hit a civilian area, wounding seven people and damaging nine houses.

The government has vowed that by the end of the year it will crush the rebels, who want an independent state for the Tamil minority.

It now says it will produce within weeks a long delayed package of devolution proposals.

It is seeking to sideline the separatist Tigers and resolve with other groups the complaints of the Tamil minority that they have been marginalised for decades by Sinhalese-dominated governments.

Correspondents says there are serious doubts over whether the scheme can work.

Meanwhile, the rights group Amnesty International says the end of the ceasefire will lead to a dramatic rise in hostilities in the country.