Sophisticated mine caused explosion

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 1998, 20:53 GMT]
The explosion that killed the Jaffna town commander, Mayor and others this morning was caused by a very sophisticated and well camouflaged claymore device that had been concealed in the ceiling of the municipalcouncil office, said Jaffna security forces commander Major Gen. Balagalla to journalists who were flown to Jaffna this afternoon by the Ministry of Defence.

The press conference was held at the Jaffna security forces HQ at Palaly this evening around 7.30. Maj.Gen. Balagalla said that the blast was a set back for the SL army. There had been two claymore devices concealed in the ceiling, each with a payload of 3-5 kilograms of TNT, according to the commander.

He said that the devices may have been placed there by LTTE operatives during renovation work on the building about four months ago and that the explosive devices were so cleverly concealed that they could not have been detected through a routine security check.

Balagalla claimed that the claymore devices were not of conventional design. He said that of the twelve people who were in the conference hall, all except the Mayor were killed on the spot.