A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber assassinated the Sri Lankan army's deputy chief of staff yesterday, dealing another blow to the island's unraveling peace process.
Major General Parami Kulatunga, the army's number three, was driving on a main highway in a Colombo suburb when police said the bomber rammed his motorcycle into the general's car.
The blast killed Kulatunga and three others plus the bomber and wounded at least six more people, including the general's guards who were following in a second vehicle.
Kulatunga is the highest ranking army officer to be killed in Sri Lanka's three decades of ethnic conflict which have claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
"The bodyguards who brought in General Kulatunga identified his body," hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa told reporters.
Soysa said the hospital was warned by an anonymous caller to expect extra work about an hour before the attack.
Police said two other soldiers and a civilian bystander, as well as the bomber, were also killed in the blast during the morning rush hour along the congested High Level Road, one of the main highways to the capital Colombo.
It is used extensively by troops because a major military cantonment is located at nearby Panagoda.
Kulatunga's white Peugeot 406 car took the full force of the explosion at Pannipitiya and immediately caught fire.
Police initially believed the bomb was rigged on a motorcycle parked on the side of the road. But forensic tests and witness accounts confirmed that the rider crashed into the car and detonated the bomb, a police official said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility but the military blamed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"We now have evidence that the blast was triggered by an LTTE suicide bomber who rode a motorcycle," military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe told reporters. "He crashed against the car and detonated the explosives."
Police diverted vehicles as forensic experts sifted through the wreckage and other debris along the main road.
President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the assassination, saying it was an attempt by the Tigers to derail the peace process.
Rajapakse said the killing showed the rebels' "total disregard for the international community's repeated calls on it to cease all violence and acts of terrorism."
RSS