Colombo: Sri Lanka's LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels today (Jul 25, 2004) gunned down seven members of the breakaway group led by renegade leader Karuna, including some of his close aides, and a Government intelligence officer near Colombo, police said.

In a pre-dawn attack, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam wiped out the inmates of what was believed to be a "safe house" of the Karuna faction.

Police said a soldier, believed to be a military intelligence officer, was also killed in the attack.

The killings took place on the eve of a visit to the capital by Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen to try and salvage the island's tottering peace process. The wiping out of the men, including senior aides of Karuna, or V Muralitharan, could be a blow to the military, which had tried to deny its involvement with the renegades.

The renegade regional commander led an unprecedented split in LTTE in March and went underground five weeks later after disbanding some 5,000 to 6,000 combatants under him.

Since then, there had been internecine clashes between the two groups undermining Norway's attempts to bring the Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government to the peace-negotiating table.