Click to play videoNew Delhi: The US and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka were ''slightly injured'' when their helicopters were targeted by mortars fired by LTTE in the east on Tuesday.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, suffered minor injuries in the attack in Batticaloa as was the Italian ambassador who was accompanying him.
Both were hurt when mortar shells hit a helipad where their helicopter had landed. Six Sri Lankan military personnel were also injured.
The ambassadors were part of a team comprising other ambassadors and the Lankan Human Rights Minister. They were going to Batticaloa to attend a meeting about the development of the area, which is a hotbed of separatist violence.
Robert Blake had moved to Colombo last year from Delhi, where he was deputy chief of mission. Two days ago, Blake had called for a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
Batticaloa saw heavy fighting last year in which the Tamil rebels had suffered reverses.
The Sri Lankan Defense Ministry blamed the attack on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who are banned in the United States and in European Union countries as a terrorist group.
The US had designated the Tamil rebels a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in 1997.
There was no immediate comment from the LTTE rebels over the incident.
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