ONE TAMIL CIVILIAN KILLED AND SCORES OF OTHER CIVILIANS INJURED WHEN TWO LTTE EXPLOSIVE DEVICES DETONATED
(By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles)
One Tamil civilian died and scores of other civilians were injured when high explosive claymore mines targeting security forces were detonated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the country’s Northern and Eastern provinces, the Sri Lanka Army said.
All devices were exploded July 18 in two incidents full of gory in crowded places in Jaffna and a Trincomalee suburb where in the latter incident all injured were Tamil women taking part in a shramadana work to cleanup their town. In the third incident, the claymore mine was detected by a Tamil civilian and the message was conveyed to the army after which it was diffused. The third claymore although targeting security forces if exploded as designed also would have injured hundreds of students at the Eastern University Hostel where it was picked up by the army Engineers.
Sinnathamby Nagarasa (55) of Kudamiyan Varani was standing infront of his saloon when the claymore mine targeting route clearing soldiers were exploded during the morning rush hour at 8.50 a.m. The saloon owner died instantly. Two other civilians and the four soldiers were severely wounded in the blast. One of the civilians injured was Veerakirthi Kandasamy (70) who was seated inside the saloon near the Kodikamam Cooperative shop on the road to Point Pedro in Thenmarachchi area.
The other incident happened when an unidentified explosive devise left by the LTTE by the side of the road targeting security forces prematurely exploded when eight women taking part in a shramadana movement to clean up their town Ambuvallipuram (Anpu-Vallipuram) came in contact with it. The women volunteers were heaping up garbage by the side of the road to be burnt when the device hidden inside the refuse went off injuring the innocent volunteer workers. Emergency surgery was performed on two women who were seriously injured at Trincomalee hospital.
The third devise of a claymore detected at Vandaramoolai in Batticaloa weighed 3 kilograms and was placed against a wall of the student hostel of the Eatern University. It was diffused.
