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Sri Lanka military: Bombs kill soldier and three civilians, wound 24
Associated Press,
Tue January 23, 2007 05:14 EST .
DILIP GANGULY - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Two roadside bombs exploded in northern Sri Lanka - 's Jaffna town Tuesday, killing a government soldier and three civilians, officials said. At least 25 others were wounded. Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels for the blasts that appeared targeted at military patrols. One of the bombs, of a type that can be remotely controlled, apparently missed its military target but killed a civilian and wounded a soldier. The other blast hit a military truck, killing one soldier and wounding two others. Hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals said two more civilians died after being admitted to the hospital and 22 civilians were being treated for injuries. Earlier, police had found three mines believed hidden by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeastern port town of Trincomalee, Samarasinghe said. The bombs, found late Monday, ``were meant to carry out attacks on our troops in Trincomalee,'' he said. Trincomalee is north of Batticaloa, where an airstrike hit a rebel camp on Monday. The area has been the scene of a number of recent clashes between the rebels and military. ``We took the decision to bomb the target ... (which was) an identified Tiger terrorist gathering point,'' Samarasinghe said of Monday's air attack. ``Air force sources confirmed that a large number of Tiger terrorists were killed.'' However, a spokesman for the rebels, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, said no Tiger camps had been hit. Fighting between the Tigers and security forces has escalated in the past few months as the government steps up attempts to rout insurgents from parts of the north and east, where they want to establish a separate homeland for the country's minority ethnic Tamils. The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983, following decades of discrimination under the majority Sinhalese-dominated government. A 2002 truce still exists on paper, but has virtually collapsed since the resurgence of large-scale fighting last year.
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Published: Tue Jan 23 08:17:11 EST 2007
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BBC Sinhala,
23 January 2007 - 17:50 EDT.
The damage caused by air raids in Vakarai is not to the propotions as described by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) say journalists who visited Vakarai on Tuesday.
