Eight persons were killed and another 25 others
were injured in a LTTE claymore attack on a SLTB bus in Vavuniya
yesterday, the military said.
'The LTTE triggered a claymore mine targeting a
public transport passenger bus at Paraiyanalankulam on the
Vavuniya-Mannar main road around 7.30 am", military spokesman
Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.
The bus ran off the road and hit a tree by the
impact of the blast, he said.
He said that the bus had been carrying a
complement of passengers on a run from Mannar to Vavuniya when
it was caught up in the blast.
Army medical teams evacuated the injured to
Vavuniya hospital.
Brig. Samarasinghe claimed that the LTTE was
deliberately targeting civilians to mount pressure on the
government to stop the humanitarian missions launched to free
the civilian population from the clutches of the LTTE.
"The LTTE has always resorted to cowardly terror
attacks against civilians in the face of continuous defeats
suffered at the hands of the Security Forces".
This was the second claymore mine attack
targeting a civilian transport bus since June last year when a
SLTB bus was attacked at Kebithigollewa, Anuradhapura, killing
at least 64 people including 15 children.
