Claymore explosion kills three Mannar civilians

Three Tamil civilians were killed in a claymore explosion Wednesday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. while transporting sand in a tractor from Kallaru located in the Liberation Tigers controlled Musali division in Mannar district, civil sources said.

Saminathan Jacob, 58, Simion Regin, 22, and Simion Antony Gnanapragasam, 17 of Kokupadaiyan area in Musali DS division were returing with their loaded tractor to Kokupadaiyan when their tractor hit a claymore mine buried along the road by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army.

The tractor was destroyed in the explosion. All three occupants died on the spot, civil society sources said.

Their bodies were taken to Silavathurai hospital, hospital sources said.

The site where the explosion took place is located about 30 km off Mannar town.

(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=18657)