ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Popular army official killed in Lanka

Tamil tiger militants killed a popular army commander and two of his bodyguards in a suicide attack in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula today as 14 more soldiers died in a rebel ambush in the region, officials said.

The attacks came a day after the defence ministry reported the killing of 16 rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in separate clashes with troops in the island's troubled northeast.

Brigadier Larry Wijeratne, commander of the 524 brigade based in Point Pedro in the Vadamarachchi region, cradle of Tamil militancy in the peninsula, was killed when a women LTTE suicide bomber flung herself at his vehicle and exploded, the officials said.

The vehicle carrying Brigadier Wijeratne, who was immensely popular with the locals, was coming out of the brigade headquarters when the attack took place, the officials said.

They said Brigadier Wijeratne was proceeding to the Palaly air force base to take a flight to Colombo to take up his next posting at the army headquarters. A large number of locals had gathered at the gate to bid him farewell. Suddenly, the woman suicide bomber broke away from the crowd and jumped at the officer's vehicle, setting off a huge explosion, they said.

Brigadier Wijeratne and two of his bodyguards were killed, while two others escaped with injuries. The woman suicide bomber was blown to pieces in the blast, they added.

He was the second senior army official to die in the peninsula since the security forces captured the former rebel stronghold in early 1996. On July 4, 1996, Brigadier Ananda Hmangoda was killed in a similar suicide attack in Jaffna town, but a cabinet minister, Nimal Sirpala de Silva, who was there, escaped with injuries.

Brigadier Wijeratne had been the commander for the Vadamarachchi region since the forces captured the peninsula, and human rights activists said there had been not a single case of 'disappearance' in the region since then, while the rest of the peninsula had recorded over 600 disappearances.

He often drove around in the area without armed escorts because he was confident of his safety, the said.

Meanwhile, the rebels ambushed an army bus at Cheddikulam in Vavuniya district in the northern mainland, killing 14 soldiers and wounding 45, the officials said.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report