Sri Lankan police say two men have been shot dead in the country's northeast as negotiations are under way to stop a return of civil war to the country.
Authorities said one of the men killed Tuesday was an ethnic Tamil journalist who was shot in Trincomalee. The French news agency describes the other victim as a public servant who was shot in another part of the city. Police have not identified the attackers in either incident.
A series of ambushes has killed about 70 military personnel since December. Meanwhile, Tamil rebels blame the military for abuses that have killed dozens of Tamil civilians and rebels.
Diplomats from Norway (peace envoy Erik Solheim) and the United States (Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns) are in Sri Lanka trying to preserve a fragile peace between the government and rebels.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.