Ahead of peace talks between Sri Lanka's warring parties in Norwegian capital Oslo, two soldiers and a bus station guard were killed in separate attacks in the island nation, where eight prisoners including two suspected Tamil rebels escaped from a high-security jail Sunday.The two soldiers were killed Sunday in separate claymore mine attacks in the Sri Lankan districts of Mannar and Jaffna, news agency Press Trust of India reported from capital Colombo. A civilian guard of a bus station was also shot dead by a fighter from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Batticaloa district.
In another incident, eight inmates, including two suspected LTTE rebels, escaped from the Batticaloa prison Sunday morning.Batticaloa jail is known for frequent breakouts, the agency reported.
Peace facilitator Norway called the two-day meeting starting June 8 in the absence of any other contact between the two sides amid an escalation in violence. The talks are to focus only on the safety of the 60-member Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission comprising monitors from five Scandinavian countries.