Five Lankan soldiers, 2 civilians killed in Jaffna mine blast

Colombo, Apr 10 (UNI) At least five Sri Lankan soldiers and two civilians were killed in the Northern Jaffna peninsula when a powerful claymore mine hit their vehicle in the A9 Janffna-Kandy main highway this afternoon.

''An army double cab travelling on the A9 high way at Mirusuvil located between Kodikamam and Omanthai entry-exit point was caught in an LTTE claymore mine explosion, killing five soldiers and wounding one more,'' Military spokesman, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told UNI over the phone.

He said that another vehicle, belonging to HUDEC, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) travelling in the opposite direction was also hit by the blast.

''Two civilian NGO workers (locals) were killed and two more injured,'' Brig Samarasinghe said.

The incident took place at a time when the diplomatic heads of mission of Sri Lanka's donor community, such as Norway, Japan and European Union (EU), were holding a meeting with LTTE's political wing head, S P Thamilselvan ''to encourage the Tamil Tigers to attend the next round of direct talks in Geneva scheduled for April 19''.

President Mahinda Rajapakse is also scheduled to hold an all party conference here in Colombo late this evening to discuss the matter pertaining to the next round of talks with the LTTE in Geneva.

It was only last week that Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim and his deputy Jon Hanssen-Bauer left the island after holding separate talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and the LTTE leaders on salvaging the four-year long shaky truce.

Before leaving for Olso on Thursday, the Norwegian facilitators urged both the government of Sri Lanka to adhere to the provisions of the fragile ceasefire agreement and the agreement reached at the Geneva direct talks in mid-February, warning that ''there will be problems down the road'' otherwise.

''We strongly urge both the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to do everything in their hands to stick to the letter of the ceasefire agreement and what was agreed in Geneva and implement them as it would help to rapidly move forward to the next round in Geneva,'' Mr. Solheim said here in Colombo.

UNI XC ARB GC1707