Claymore blast hits SLA patrol

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 04:23 GMT]

Sri Lanka army (SLA) and Police personnel at the scene of the claymore blast in Pampaimadu Friday. (SLA Photo)

A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and another wounded when the Liberation Tigers set off a claymore mine blast on a road clearing patrol at the 6th Mile Post on the highway to Mannar near Vavuniya town around 8.15 a.m. Friday morning. Meanwhile, unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at a Police sentry in Vairavar Puliyankulam, a suburb of the Vavuniya town, in the early hours of the morning around 3 a.m. The Police opened fire at random following the blast but no one was hurt, sources said.

All transport on the Vavuniya - Mannar road was stopped following the claymore blast on the SLA patrol at the 6th Mile Post.

The wounded soldier was rushed to the Vavuniya hospital and transferred later in the morning to the hospital in Anuradhapura.