LTTE terrorists attack civilians, killing 26 and injuring over 60

LTTE terrorists ambushed a bus carrying about 80 innocent civilians at Helagama on the Buttala- Monaragala road around 7.40a.m. (January 16). The bus that was carrying large number of schoolchildren, office workers and poor peasants was first attacked with a powerful claymore blast and then fired up on by the terrorists.

One survivor told defence.lk that the terrorists remorselessly shot at the people who were jumping out of the bus following the blast. Many women survived the bomb blast became easy targets of the terror gunmen, he added.

According to the defence.lk sources in the area , over 60 people were initially taken to Buttla hospital following the attack. 23 people among them were already dead and except six, others were transferred to Monaragala hospital. Among the six remaining at the Buttla hospital, there are two children at the ages of 2 years and one month. According to the hospital sources, the mother of the two children was killed in the attack. There are 13 females and 10 males among the dead at the hospital, sources added.

According to the sources in Monaragala hospital 44 people were initially admitted. Two of them succumbed to the injuries while five were airlifted to National hospital Colombo. There are two schoolchildren and two infants at the ages 3 and 4 years among the wounded, the sources added.

Dr. Hector Weerasighe, the director of the National Hospital told defence.lk that one of the five victims airlifted to Colombo succumbed to the injuries. Other four including a 14-year-old schoolchild are presently being treated at the intensive care unit, he added.

LTTE is a ruthless terrorist outfit that has been fighting for mono ethnic separate homeland for Tamils since 1983. The outfit led by its psychopathic leader V. Prbhakaran is notorious for crimes against women and children. During its three decades of terror campaign against Sri Lankan citizens the outfit has killed and maimed over tens and thousands innocent children in ethnic cleansing raids, indiscriminate bomb attacks and by using child soldiers at the battlefronts. The FBI in its recent report called LTTE as the deadliest terrorist outfit in the world. According to the report, "it's not al Qaeda or Hezbollah or even HAMAS" but the group is called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or the Tamil Tigers for short is the deadliest and most dangerous terrorists outfit in the world.

However, many defence observers in Sri Lanka say that LTTE has built its "deadly" image through henoius crimes against soft targets as women, children and unsuspecting civilians. During the last two year alone, when the CFA was still in operation, LTTE killed more than 4000 people.