They said 12 rebels were killed when naval gunboats destroyed a fiberglass dinghy trying to land on a beach of northwestern Mannar town, and two more rebels were killed in the north in a landmine explosion.
Unidentified gunmen killed 26 people and six policemen died in a landmine blast in separate incidents in Sri Lanka, police said Wednesday.
On Saturday, a falling tree branch set off a landmine inside the old French Embassy compound on Rue Clemenceau in west Beirut, causing minor damage but no casualties, police said.
Tadhg O'Neill, chief of staff of the Irish army, who had come here to investigate the landmine explosion March 21.