Colombo: In the first factional fighting since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) split in March, eight rebels and an ambulance driver were killed as the two sides traded heavy gunfire in Sri Lanka's Northeast.

Cadres belonging to the main LTTE group were fighting members of the breakaway Eastern faction led by renegade commander V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, with mortars and small arms fire at the Verugal river, military officials said.

Commando units of the LTTE were advancing on two fronts against positions held by Karuna, who last month broke away from the main group, rebel sources said.

The main Tiger unit launched the offensive under the cover of darkness, crossed the Verugal river that separates the Northern district of Trincomalee with the Karuna held Batticaloa region and were on the advance, they said.

There were casualties on both sides. According to rebel sources, an ambulance driver who tried to retrieve wounded rebel cadres at Kathiraveli was killed in a claymore mine explosion. Several other civilians too were wounded when they suddenly found themselves in the middle of fighting.