Six troopers wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 1999, 11:54 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded when a land mine exploded at Salappai Aaru near the Kutchaveli SLA detachment 15 km. north of Trincomalee, around 10 a.m. this morning, said sources.

The SLA soldiers who were on foot patrol had noticed the device in an open space and had called in a mine clearing squad to disable it.

However, the mine had unexpectedly exploded while the soldiers were waiting nearby for the mine clearing team to arrive.

SLA sources suspect that the Liberation Tigers had placed the mine to target the troops who regularly patrol the area on foot in the early morning.

Elsewhere two Special Task Force (STF) troopers were wounded when suspected members of the Liberation Tigers opened fire on their truck at Manthai, Mannar, this morning.

The wounded are now receiving treatment at the Anuradhapura hospital, sources said.

This is the third attack on the STF troops in the area during the past two days.

The STF moved into the area in February this year, taking over from the Sri Lanka Army, as the latter needed to pull out troops for operations in the Vanni.