Mine blast kills 16 soldiers in Lanka's restive East

Colombo, Aug 1: At least 15 Sri Lankan soldiers and a civilian driver were killed today when their bus came under a claymore mine attack by the suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in the restive Eastern province, military sources here said.

''The bus carrying 20 soldiers from the Eastern Headquarters in Minneriya to the Allakantale army camp hit a powerful claymore mine planted by the LTTE, leaving 15 soldiers dead and two more wounded,'' an army official told UNI over the phone, adding that the civilian driver of the bus also lost his life in the explosion.

According to the military sources, the bus was taking soldiers to the place where the government troops and the LTTE cadres are fighting a bitter battle for the past one week, leaving over 60 killed on both sides.

Heavy fighting erupted yesterday in the eastern province as the Army advances towards the rebel-held territory for the first time since the February 2002 ceasefire accord, in an effort to open the sluice gate of the Mavilaru irrigation tank, closed by the LTTE on July 20.

The fighting formations of the LTTE mounted stiff resistance to the advancing government troops, backed by the aerial bombardment from the Air Force fighter jets, leaving over 42 killed on both sides yesterday alone.

The fighting is underway even as the head of the Nordic truce monitoring mission, retired Swedish Maj Gen Ulf Henricsson accused both government and the LTTE of playing with the humanitarian issue and warned that the ongoing heavy bombardments could damage the small dam in Mavilaru.

''If water is the issue, this is the wrong way to go about it...

They could end up having more water than they need,'' the retired Swedish Major General told Sri Lanka's Foreign Correspondents' Association in Colombo last night night.

He, however, played down that the ongoing face to face long-range gun battles would not push the island nation into ''a full-scale war'' as widely predicted.

The government spokesman in defence matters and Minister of Policy Planning, Keheliya Rambukwella, also said the government is still committed to the four-year long Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement.

''As far as the government is concerned we are fully committed to uphold the ceasefire agreement. The LTTE has also not pulled out the truce. So the ceasefire agreement is very much in place,'' Minister Rambukwella said, adding that the government troops were on a humanitarian mission to secure the water supply that was blocked by the LTTE.

UNI

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