|
Sri Lanka rail track blown up
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels blew up part of a rail track, derailing a train in Sri Lankas east on Wednesday and injuring four people, the military said, a day before Japans peace envoy was due to visit the district. Yasushi Akashi arrived on Tuesday for a five-day visit to try and find ways to jumpstart a battered peace process which has descended into renewed war. An estimated 4,500 people have been killed since last year alone. Three civilians were injured aboard the train in the district of Batticaloa when two landmines planted on the track blew up and jolted the carriages, while a policeman who got off the train afterwards stepped on another mine, the military said. The blast has damaged the track. The train has gone off the track, but has not toppled, said military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe. It was definitely the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). In a separate incident, a soldier was killed when suspected rebels ambushed a patrol with a Claymore mine in the northern district of Vavuniya. The Tigers denied they were behind the train attack. They blamed former comrades who broke away to form their own faction called the Karuna group, which is believed to be allied to the government and which has since suffered an internal split of its own. That area is dominated by paramilitary groups, Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the rebels de facto capital in the far north. We have nothing to do with that incident. Posted by: Fred 2007-06-07 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=190214 |