A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber disguised as a pregnant
woman blew herself up inside Sri Lanka's army headquarters Tuesday,
critically wounding the army commander and killing at least
eight.
The blast came as peace envoys from Norway tried to coax the
rebels to return to peace talks in Switzerland, seen as the best
chance of halting a wave of attacks that are straining a 2002
ceasefire to breaking point.
"A suicide bomb went off near the army hospital aimed at the
army commander's vehicle. It was a powerful blast," an army
spokesman said.
Sri Lanka's north and east have been rocked by claymore
fragmentation mine attacks and ethnic riots this month as a peace
process between the government and Tigers remains deadlocked, but
this was the first suicide attack in the capital in two years.
The Tigers were unavailable for comment, but have denied
involvement in recent attacks. More than 100 people have died in
the bloodiest two weeks since the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire
halted the civil war that killed more than 64,000.
The military said Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, a decorated
combat veteran who said the truce was too soft on the rebels, had
been undergoing surgery but was out of danger.
The army said eight people, both civilian and military, had been
killed and 27 wounded. The suicide bomber disguised herself as a
pregnant woman with explosives tucked under her clothes, an army
source said.
After the blast, soldiers hastily pulled on flak jackets and
helmets and closed off nearby roads, while Fonseka's distraught
wife was escorted into the base one of the highest security areas
in the country.
Earlier Tuesday the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who
demand an ethnic Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east, had
called on mediator Norway to pressure the government to accept its
conditions for returning to peace talks.
They have been wrangling with Colombo over the transport of
rebel commanders to their northern headquarters for meetings they
say must take place ahead of the peace talks, which have now been
indefinitely postponed.
But in a letter to Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer, they made
clear their real anger was at a breakaway faction in the east led
by a former Tiger known as Karuna Amman, whom the Tigers say the
army is helping to stage attacks on their members.
The last suicide blast in Colombo, in July 2004, targeted a
government minister the Tigers saw as having links to Karuna.
(China Daily April 26, 2006)
