Three soldiers were killed and nine others seriously wounded when a suspected LTTE suicide bomber blew himself up on Thursday in eastern Sri Lanka while two other government troops were shot dead by the rebels in another incident in the region, police and army officials said.
The suicide bomber exploded in a high security zone in Batticaloa town when the soldiers were shopping in a market-place, the military said in a statement. The unidentified suicide bomber had mingled with the public to enter the town which is under Army control. Shops and schools were closed in the town following the explosion and the area was cordoned off. The blast came within a week of a failed attempt to kill a police officer at Kalkudah in Batticaloa and a day after two policemen were killed when a parcel bomb exploded at Kalmunai in the eastern Ampara district. A pro-LTTE website claimed that the three men killed in the suicide bombing were military intelligence operatives who had formerly been members of the Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). The trio were part of a unit called Mohan group and were effective in counter-intelligence operations against the Tigers in Batticaloa, it said. Bureau Report