Lankan Air Force jets bomb 'known LTTE targets'

Colombo, Jue 15: Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets today bombed a couple of ''known targets'' of LTTE , barely a couple of hours after a civilian bus was blown up in an alleged LTTE claymore mine explosion that left over 60 killed and 45 wounded.

''Air Force jets took two known LTTE targets in LTTE-held Mullaitivu in the Northern Jaffna district and Sampur in the Eastern Trincomalee districtin as a deterrent measure,'' Military spokesman, Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said.

The fully-packed passenger bus was blown up at Kebithikkollawa in the North-Central Anuradhapura district this morning and the government blamed the LTTE for the attack.

This is a major attack to have taken the lives of over 60 civilians during the last four-year long ceasefire agreement.

Urging the international community, especially the donor co-chairs and the Norwegian facilitators to help eradicating terrorism, the government of Sri Lanka said the motive of the LTTE attackers was to ''instigate a backlash in order to fulfill their evil designs''.

The government also urged the people to be calm and support its endeavour to fight terrorism.

''It is not mistaken target because the military do not use this route. The LTTE was well aware that they are civilians. The attack carries the hallmark of the LTTE and there is doubt that it was carried out by the LTTE,'' Government spokesman on defence matters, Minister Rambukwella told reporters here today.

Describing the attack on the civilians as a ''barbaric act'' of terrorism, Minister Rambkwella said the Norwegian-brokered peace process and the four-year long ceasefire agreement had to be re-looked in a proper context.

The LTTE in a statement, however, denied its involvement in the claymore attack on the civilian bus, and counter-accused that the attack timed to occur immediately after the return of the LTTE delegation from Oslo as ''a reprehensible act of murders with the sole aim of blaming the LTTE for the attack''.

UNI

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