Bomb Attack On Sri Lanka Army HQ

BBC News

April 25, 2006

At least eight people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on Sri Lanka's army headquarters, while the head of the army has been seriously injured. Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka is undergoing surgery in the capital Colombo, where the attack happened, a doctor said.

The army has blamed the Tamil Tiger rebel group for the attack. There has been no word from the rebels.

There has been a surge in violence in Sri Lanka recently, and the Tigers last week pulled out of planned peace talks.

Military officials say the attacker was a woman who disguised herself as being heavily pregnant to conceal the explosives.

She presented fake identification and said she had a pregnancy appointment at the army hospital inside the complex, unnamed officials told the Associated Press.

"A powerful blast activated by a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber claimed the lives of several army and civil personnel near the military hospital gate this afternoon," the army said in a statement.

There were 27 wounded, the army said.

The army headquarters are in a heavily guarded compound in central Colombo.
Lt Gen Fonseka is reported to have suffered severe abdominal injuries and has been taken to hospital.

"He is not out of danger, we are operating on him now," Dr Hector Weerasinghe of Colombo's National Hospital told AP news agency.

Lt Gen Fonseka was appointed head of the army shortly after the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse last November and has taken a hard line against the Tamil Tigers.

Police say the explosion bears all the hallmarks of the Tigers. The rebels have denied being behind recent attacks.

Tamil Tiger rebels frequently use suicide bombers in their operations - and are thought to have carried out nearly 200 attacks since the first suicide bombing in July 1987, when a bomber in a truck filled with explosives killed 40 soldiers.

COLOMBO ATTACKS
August, 2005: Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar shot dead at his home
July, 2004: Woman suicide bomber tries to kill government minister
July, 2001: 18 people killed and planes destroyed in attack on Colombo airport

"Traditionally, it is the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] which has the capability to carry out an attack like this," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP agency.

This is the first suicide bombing in the Sri Lankan capital since July 2004, and the biggest attack blamed on the Tamil Tigers since they signed a truce with the government in 2002.

Nearby roads were closed after the blast, while the main highway connecting the northern government-controlled town of Jaffna to the rest of the country was also cut off by government troops.

Escalating violence in the north and east of the country has left about 100 people dead in the past three weeks.

The Tigers began their armed campaign for a separate homeland for the island's Tamil minority in the 1970s.

Efforts are continuing to persuade the rebels to return to peace talks in Switzerland. Last week they pulled out of negotiations, accusing the government of attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians.