17 sailors killed in landmine blast

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, MAY 23. At least 17 sailors were killed and 19 wounded when the bus transporting them was hit by a landmine in the eastern district of Trincomalee today.

Some of the wounded sailors are in a serious condition, the Defence Ministry said.

The sailors were going on leave and the military transporter was ferrying them to central Sri Lanka, a transit point for security forces personnel going home from the battlefront.

The Defence Ministry said the landmine had been hidden in a culvert on the Trincomalee-Habarana main highway, 40 km. from Trincomalee town.

There has been an upsurge in violence in eastern Sri Lanka with several incidents reported from Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa and Trincomalee over the past few days.

Earlier this week, the police Special Task Force that is mainly deployed in the east, was in a confrontation with the LTTE in Ampara district.

In another incident, LTTE cadres ransacked a village in Polonnaruwa district.

In Batticaloa, two civilians, one of them a 10-year -old-boy, were wounded last week in a confrontation between security forces and the LTTE, 17 km. north of Valachchenai.

There has been a steady build-up of such incidents since the first week of May, soon after Government forces suffered major reverses in the Jaffna peninsula.

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Section  : International
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