The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Colombo

A suspected Tamil Tiger rebel detonated explosives on his motorcycle outside a police station in northern Sri Lanka Monday, killing at least 12 officers and wounding 40 others, officials said.

The blast occurred during morning rush hour directly in front of the police building in Vavuniya town, 258 kilometres (160 miles) north of Colombo, military and police officials said.

The wounded, who included school children, were rushed to the main hospital.

"It was a Tiger suicide bomber who rammed his (explosives-packed) motorcycle as policemen were leaving for duty," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. Nine policemen and three female constables were killed while another 17 policemen were wounded, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said.

"All those killed in the attack were police personnel," Gunasekara said adding, however, that civilians were among the wounded.

The most senior police official was not in the building at the time of the blast, a policeman in Vavuniya said when contacted by telephone.

Officials at the Vavuniya hospital said they had received the bodies of 12 people killed in the blast, and a further 40 were rushed in for treatment.

Vavuniya borders territory further north of the country held by the rebels, who are fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the majority Sinhalese island.

The drawnout conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The latest attack came as security forces stepped up pressure on the guerrillas inside their territory with air attacks and ground offensives.

The defence ministry reported that 19 rebels and five security personnel were killed in weekend battles in the north.

The government insists it now has the upper hand in the 36-year-old conflict with the Tigers, who are seeking a homeland in the north and east.

However, the guerrillas have been accused of stepping up bomb attacks against civilians and security authorities across the island in recent months.

Sri Lanka has poured a record 1.5 billion dollars into the war effort this year, hoping for a quick end to the conflict which started in 1972.

Air force fighter jets pounded a "logistics base and combat vehicle conversion plant" in Mullaitivu district, further north of Vavuniya, on Sunday, the defence ministry said.

However, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Sri Lankan jets had killed two civilians and wounded 11 more in the Sunday morning attack.

"Two civilians were killed by an aerial bombing of the Sri Lankan air force on Sunday in Puthukkuriruppu town centre (in Mullaitivu district)," the Tigers said in a statement on Saturday night.

In the island's eastern district of Batticaloa, Tiger gunmen shot dead two police constables while a trooper from the paramilitary homeguard unit was shot dead elsewhere in the region on Sunday, the ministry said.

It said troops also killed four more Tiger rebels in a fresh confrontation in the north on Sunday.