Naval gunboats intercepted the Tiger boats leading to the battle, which lasted for six hours, it said.
The blast is supposed to have been triggered by an army unit.
Elsewhere, the guerrillas abducted 21 students and later freed them.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Saturday witnessed the conditions of tens of thousands of displaced Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka as he appealed to a triumphant government to 'heal the wounds' left by three decades of ethnic conflict. The Secretary General visited the camps in Vavuniya district today, where more than 300,000 people are staying, after escaping from the battle lines between government forces and Tamil Tigers.
China said it has suspended the project due to security concerns from a third party.
Vijay, with his chief ministerial ambitions, is a one-man army, at least as of now, and his campaign team considers him omnipresent. He has to be present in all districts, if not all constituencies at the same time, as there is no second-line leader or platform speaker in the party, who can draw crowds, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Over 12 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and three soldiers injured in separate gun battles triggered by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam's attempts to breach the de facto front line in northern Sri Lanka, the military said in Colombo on Wednesday.
At least 24 people were arrested by the security forces for defying the ban on celebrations, officials said.
Making a final push to overrun the last patch of territory held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Sri Lankan forces on Wednesday pushed deeper, capturing six kilometres of the 18 km 'No Fire Zone' as thousands of trapped Tamils civilians continued to flee the northern war zone.
'We have not announced a ceasefire. We have only said that aerial bombardment and shelling will not be carried out,' he told CNN-IBN, the channel said in a release.
In a resolution adopted in the assembly, the Jayalalithaa government sought diplomatic efforts by India to change any possible pro-Lanka stand adopted by America in the United Nation rights body.
the Navy exchanged fire with a flotilla of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the rebels attacked naval gunboats.
The vote on a critical resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has been postponed to Tuesday, as Colombo stepped up efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting which is being seen as an acid test for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
England Test captain Ben Stokes was helped off the field after suffering an injury while playing in The Hundred on Sunday.
Asin on her trip to war-torn regions of Northern Sri Lanka, thus becoming the first celebrity to visit the area.
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot and wounded 2 policemen on Wednesday in northern Sri Lanka, the military said.\n\n
Sri Lanka's main Tamil party on Sunday secured a landslide win in the historic provincial council polls held after a gap of 25 years in the former Tamil Tigers-ruled northern province, an outcome expected to give limited autonomy to the Tamils after the end of decades of ethnic war.
Skeletal remains of 80 bodies have been dug out of a mass grave in a former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stronghold in Sri Lanka, fuelling speculation that the bodies are of Tamil civilians who disappeared during the war with the rebels.
Sri Lanka's Minister of State for Prisons Management Lohan Ratwatte tendered his resignation on Wednesday, days after he allegedly threatened to kill Tamil prisoners during his visit to the Anuradhapura prison.
The rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi was decorated with red and yellow rebel flags and senior rebels joined parents of the suicide bombers -- known as the Black Tigers -- for a public ceremony.
War-displaced Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka can now hope to have better dwelling facilities, with India and Sri Lanka on Tuesday signing a memorandum of understanding for construction of 49,000 houses at a cost of $260 million (about Rs 1,352 crore).
The Chinese have been making inroads in Sri Lanka where they recently got a reclaimed port city near Colombo. Prior to that, they gained control over the Hambantota port which was built by them.
The 2025 Sony World Photography Awards has announced its National and Regional Award winners, celebrating talent from 56 countries.
A Sri Lankan court on Tuesday ordered the release of 56 Indian fishermen who were detained for allegedly fishing in the island nation's territorial waters.
There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE in this regard.
The International Organisation for Migration has helped about 90,000 displaced Tamils, lodged in the Menik Farm camps in Vavuniya, to return to their towns and villages in northern Sri Lanka.
With the civil war in northern Sri Lanka over, India will shortly open its Consulate in Jaffna, a significant step that will enable it to participate better in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process in the Tamil-dominated region.
The LTTE forgot that Eelam was a means to an end -- that is a place of honour for Tamils and preservation of their identity and culture. By obdurately focussing on 'all or nothing' strategy, the LTTE lost everything and has brought upon untold misery on the Tamil people of Jaffna.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday made a historic visit to Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north and met newly-elected Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran and members of the Tamil community who narrated "harrowing" stories to him about alleged rights violations.
The development came as the local fishermen in the North have been protesting for over a week to stop the Indians from entering the Sri Lankan waters for fishing.
Shaji Ul Mulk, T Ten Global Sports Founder and Chairman, believes the prospect of seeing India icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the T10 format could be a possibility.
With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61.
The issue of fishermen continues to be thorny in the relations across the Palk Straits as the Sri Lankan Navy is often accused of harassing the Tamil Nadu fishermen.
'With butterflies in our stomachs, but confident of our mission, we took off for Jaffna on the morning of 24 July 1987.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe recalls a conversation with Air Vice Marshal Harpal Singh Ahluwalia (retd), then a wing commander and mission leader for the clandestine operation.
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'A fragile Sri Lanka will have a serious impact on the security of India.'
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