Two soldiers killed, 12 wounded in Jaffna claymore blast

Colombo, July 19 (UNI) At least two Sri Lankan soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 12 wounded when a powerful LTTE claymore explosion hit their bus in the Northern Jaffna peninsula today, military sources here said.

''An army officer and a soldier were killed and 12 wounded when the LTTE cadres detonated a claymore targeting a bus carrying military personnel on leave. Among the 12 wounded, four were serious and had been airlifted to Colombo for treatment,'' a military official here said.

Initial reports said that the bus carrying 14 soldiers, including three officers and police constables, were travelling near the Maruthanarmadam vegetable market when the suspected LTTE cadres detonated the powerful claymore planted onto a wayside tree in the area, wounding all of them.

The military official said that the army personnel in the bus were to board a local flight from Palaly airport to come to Colombo to spend their monthly holidays with their families living elsewhere in the South.

At least 21 security force personnel had been killed and 35 more wounded during the past one week.

Speaking to reporters at a media briefing in Colombo minutes before the Jaffna explosion, Government spokesman on Defence matters and Minister of Policy Implementation Keheliya Rambukwella claimed that the police on public information had arrested four suspected LTTE cadres, including ''well-trained female suicide cadre'' in Tissamaharama in the Southern province.

''The female suicide cadre was arrested on Sunday on public information with two cyanide pills and two different national identity cards in her possession. The investigations have revealed that this well-trained female suicide cadre had taken part in many LTTE attacks in the past,'' he said.

The Minister expressed doubts that she must have been waiting to target some VVIPs during the forthcoming Kathragama temple festival in the deep South.

''The arrest of this female LTTE cadre clearly shows that the LTTE has not given up their tactics of terror. Further investigations are on,'' he said, adding that President Mahinda Rajapakse being grassroots politician of the area, ''could well have been the target.'' UNI XC SB VA BD1402