1 Government troops fired warning shots at Tamil Tiger rebels for the first time since a truce began in Sri Lanka's bloody ethnic war nearly a month ago, military officials said Thursday.
2 Soldiers fired in the air to warn two rebels who had approached the Pooneryn military base in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday night, said an official who cannot be identified under briefing rules.
3 The rebels had approached within 75 meters (yards) of the camp, and appeared to be on a reconnaissance mission, although the two sides had agreed to keep a distance of 600 meters (2,000 feet) apart, and not attack each other, the official said.
4 The truce, the first in nearly five years, brought a halt to the fighting in the 11-year civil war that has killed more than 34,000 people.
5 No cutoff date has been set for the cease-fire, but both sides can call it off on 72-hours' notice.
6 The camp is 280 kilometers (173 miles) north of the capital.
7 Although the military had reported minor incidents during the truce, none of them involved violations of the truce or clashes between Tamil guerrillas and soldiers.
8 Cease-fire monitors from Norway, Canada and the Netherlands have not yet taken up their posts.
9 The rebels had asked the military to dismantle the Pooneryn base since it controls a land route to the rebel-held Jaffna peninsula in the north. When the government refused, the rebels rejected its offer to let civilians pass along the route.
10 President Chandrika Kumaratunga last week accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels of making new demands in peace talks aimed at ending the war.
11 'At each round of negotiations, they add something else to their list of demands. . We don't want negotiations which threaten to go nowhere,' Mrs. Kumaratunga said.
12 The first peace talks began in October after Mrs. Kumaratunga's socialist government was elected on a campaign pledge to end the war.
13 The guerrillas have been fighting for a Tamil homeland in the north and the east. Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority controls the government and the military, and the Tamils accuse it of widespread discrimination against the Tamil minority.

Government troops fired warning shots at Tamil Tiger rebels for the first time since a truce began in Sri Lanka ' s bloody ethnic war nearly a month ago , military officials said Thursday .
fired warning shots
Why were these shots fired? 