3RD LEAD

Bomb blast kills 2 SLA troopers, 4 EPDP members in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 05:04 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and four Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP) members were killed at Kommanthurai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in Batticaloa district Tuesday around 6:50 a.m, when explosives in a tractor blew up when the troopers opened fire as the driver of the tractor failed to stop on orders, Eravur police in Batticaloa said.

Two SLA troopers, two policemen and five civilians were injured.

M. A. Piriya Banda, 23, of Methirigiriya, and Punchi Banda, 34, of Polanaruwa were identified as the SLA troopers killed.

The EPDP members killed were Velautham Thayaparan, 25, of Thimilaitheevu, Sachithananthan Vigneswaran, 25 of Kommanthurai and Kovinthan Mathanarajah,12, of Kommanthurai, all three from Batticaloa district.

Yamuna, 42 and Sinthuja, 03 were the two civilians injured.

Following the explosion, SLA launched heavy rocket fire on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territories and all traffic on Batticaloa-Valaichenai main road remained blocked by SLA until 2:00 p.m.

Almost 90% of the EPDP office located along Komanthurai SLA camp has been damaged in the blast while the army commander's office suffered minor damages, the sources added.

Kommanthurai is located 16 km north of Batticaloa.