2ND LEAD

LTTE Commander killed in Claymore attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 June 2006, 10:10 GMT]
Lieutenant Colonel Mahenthi, an LTTE Commander in the Mannar district, was killed along with three LTTE cadres in a Claymore attack carried out by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Vellankulam - Thunukkai Road on Saturday morning, LTTE officials in Killinochchi said. A civilian farmer, seriously wounded in a Claymore attack Saturday morning around 6 a.m., succumbed to his wounds at Killinochchi hospital. Two employees of the World Bank-funded North East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP) were wounded in a separate attack in Nedunkerni. Claymore attacks by the Sri Lankan Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP), known as the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU), have escalated in LTTE-controlled Vanni.

Lt. Col. Mahenthi was in charge of an area in the LTTE-controlled Mannar district.

The civilian farmer who succumbed to his wounds at Killinochchi hospital was identified as Navaratnam Srinagathasan, 32.

Two other attacks were also reported in LTTE-controlled areas on Saturday, according to Tiger officals.

Also on Friday, a blast was reported around 7:25 p.m. in LTTE controlled Mannar area near Pallamadu. Casualty details were not available.

A Sinhala driver and a trainee caretaker of Thummara Enterprise, a Southern contractor firm, were killed two days ago, when the SLA DPU attackers targeted the Mannar Commander of the Tigers.