8 Sri Lanka navy personnel killed in landmine blast

COLOMBO, Jan. 12 Kyodo

Eight Sri Lanka navy personnel were killed and eight more wounded Thursday when a bus ferrying a group of sailors going on home leave hit a landmine, a navy spokesman said.

''Eight men were killed and eight more were wounded,'' navy spokesman Jayantha Perera told Kyodo News. ''The blast occurred this afternoon at Chettikulam in the northern Vavuniya district.''

Other reports put the death toll at nine navy sailors.

The island's Tamil Tiger rebels were accused of triggering the claymore mine, the latest in a string of attacks that have cost the lives of over 70 soldiers and sailors since December.

The attack came just hours after a Cabinet spokesman told reporters that President Mahinda Rajapakse, elected on Nov. 17, had cautioned the military not to provoke the rebels into aggression.

''The president has asked the armed forces not to provoke the LTTE and to abide by the cease-fire agreement (of February 2002),'' spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva said. ''But they are entitled to act if the LTTE, for example, throws a grenade or sets off landmines.''

LTTE refers to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers for short.

Asked how long the government would restrain troops, de Silva said the government's commitment to the cease-fire accord and to negotiating with the LTTE has not changed despite the alleged provocations.

''We genuinely want to abide by the CFA and prove our commitment to peace to the world,'' he said. ''We urge the LTTE to do likewise.''

Diplomats and analysts said the LTTE appears intent on provoking a return to war having had time during the cease-fire the period to prepare for battle.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning