Police commandos, civilians wounded in Colombo bomb blast

Colombo, May 28 (UNI) At least four elite Special Task Force (STF) personnel and 20 civilians were wounded when a truck carrying the STF personnel was blown up in a road side bomb attack just outside the city of Colombo this evening, military sources said.

An official attached to the Media Center for National Security (MCNS) of the Ministry of Defence said the powerful explosion took place at Welikkade junction at Ratmalana, along the main Colombo-Galle high way, a few hundred meters away from the Air Force airport base.

''We suspected this is a claymore mine attack,'' he said adding that at least five more civilian vehicles were also damaged in the blast.

The blast came exactly four days after a mine attack by the suspected Tamil Tigers on an army bus in the heart of Colombo city which killed one soldier and wounded six others, including three civilians.

UNI