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Six Killed in Army Bus Blast in Northern Sri Lanka
An army bus carrying Sri Lankan government soldiers was caught in a mine blast by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country on Monday, in which six soldiers were killed and 22 others wounded, a military spokesman said.
Military spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels detonated a mine as the army bus drove through Madduvil area in the northern Jaffna peninsula at around 1:00 p.m. local time on Monday.
The soldiers aboard the bus were those who had been granted holiday leave and were scheduled to catch a plane which would have brought them to the South, he said.
The Norwegian-brokered peace process in the war-torn country has been deadlocked over a rebel demand to lift the ban on the organization. The government rejected the demand as "unreasonable".
The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces in the north and east of the country since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland. The bloody war has killed some 64,000 people.
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