Colombo: Sri Lankan security forces were on February 8 placed on red alert as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas fired rockets and mortar bombs and put up black flags to mark the death of three rebels, who blew themselves up after an anti-aircraft gun was found on their trawler.

Troops in the island's embattled Northern and Eastern regions were put on alert following the February 7 incident where three rebels blasted themselves to pieces and sank their boat.

The LTTE guerrillas fired rockets and mortar bombs at several locations in the island's North East overnight, but there were no casualties, officials said.

The Tamil Tigers have asked the local residents in Jaffna to put up black flags on February 8 to mourn the death of the three cadres, pro-LTTE Website Tamilnet reported.

It also accused the Sri Lanka Navy and the Norway-led truce monitoring team, known as the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), as being responsible for the blast.

"Failure of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to handle the incident in a fair and responsible manner, and the provocative, belligerent conduct of the Sri Lanka Navy have resulted in three of our cadres taking their own lives," it said quoting the rebel Voice of Tigers radio.

The LTTE said its cadres were "fishing" in the area and the 23 mm gun found on the craft was there for the safety of the three cadres.

However, the SLMM ruled that the guerrillas were in clear violation of the truce pact that went into effect from February 23.

In a joint statement issued through peace broker Norway, the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government said "apparent communication failure" led to the suicide blast.

The start of the latest peace talks, which mark the fifth session, was delayed by about half an hour because of behind-the-scenes negotiations to hammer out the joint statement and head off a crisis.

"Due to an apparent communication failure between the LTTE naval commander and the cadres on board one vessel, the crew members were not informed of the agreed procedure (on checking LTTE boats), and the cadres set fire to the vessel and took their own lives," the statement said.

Both agreed that they should, in co-operation with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, review existing procedures in order to avoid similar incidents in the future.

The second and final day's talks got underway in Berlin on February 8.

PTI