Home / International / News Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read | Comment
Bus explosion kills 24 in Sri Lanka
Adjust font size:

At least 24 people were killed and 66 injured when a civilian bus was caught in an explosion blamed on Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka's southeastern Monaragala district Wednesday morning, said the military.

 

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said a civilian bus was attacked by a Claymore mine at about 7:45 a.m. (0215 GMT) in Okkampitiya, about 240 km southeast of Colombo, adding that many of the casualties were school children.

 

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been blamed for the explosion by the government.

 

The Defense Ministry said all the schools in the Uva Province, where Okkampitiya is located, have been closed for three days with effect from Wednesday.

 

Shortly after the bus attack, an Army vehicle was caught in a Claymore mine in the same district around 9:45 a.m. (0415 GMT), with four soldiers being injured.

 

The two blasts occurred as the government's decision to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE would take effect on Wednesday.

 

Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2008)

Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read
Comment
Pet Name
Anonymous
China Archives
Related >>
- Five Killed, 30 Injured in Sri Lanka's Bus Explosion
- Sri Lanka ends ceasefire with rebels
- Sri Lanka's truce to end on Jan. 16
- Sri Lankan minister dies in road side bomb blast
Most Viewed >>
> Korean Nuclear Talks
> Reconstruction of Iraq
> Middle East Peace Process
> Iran Nuclear Issue
> 6th SCO Summit Meeting
Links
- China Development Gateway
- Foreign Ministry
- Network of East Asian Think-Tanks
- China-EU Association
- China-Africa Business Council
- China Foreign Affairs University
- University of International Relations
- Institute of World Economics & Politics
- Institute of Russian, East European & Central Asian Studies
- Institute of West Asian & African Studies
- Institute of Latin American Studies
- Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies
- Institute of Japanese Studies