At least 18 soldiers were killed in a bus explosion blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels in eastern Sri Lanka late Monday night, defense officials said yesterday.

 

The bus carrying troops came under a claymore mine explosion at Kantalai, in the port district of Trincomalee around 10:45 PM local time Monday (1715 GMT).

 

Two more soldiers were injured. They were being ferried to the battlefield at Verugal in the district where fierce fighting erupted between the Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels Monday.

 

The army advance towards the sluice gate shut down by the rebels came under heavy artillery and mortar fire from the rebels. At least seven soldiers died while 35 rebels were killed in the fighting, the army said.

 

The LTTE claimed the Norwegian-backed ceasefire had been rendered void by the troops advance in to the rebel territory, but the government claimed that the operation was a humanitarian endeavor to make water available to the civilians and that the action did not mean a return to the armed conflict.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2006)