A bomb ripped through a crowded passenger bus near Sri Lanka’s capital during yesterday’s morning rush hour, killing at least 21 people and wounding 47, officials said.
The bombing was the second attack in three days targeting civilians in and around Colombo, and authorities promptly blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels, who have made such attacks a hallmark of their 25-year fight against Sri Lanka’s government.
If carried out by the rebels — who offered no immediate comment and routinely deny any role in such bombings — the attack would show their ability to strike deep inside government territory despite a maze of security checkpoints around the capital and its suburbs.
PHOTO: AP
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the Tamil Tigers detonated a roadside bomb at about 7:35am in the Colombo suburb of Moratuwa as the passenger bus went by.
The attack killed 21 people and wounded 47, he said, adding that a curfew has been imposed in the area to give soldiers and police a chance to search for suspected rebels.
The explosion shattered the bus’ windows and peppered it with shrapnel. A 45-year-old man, who identified himself only as Nalaka, said he was thrown from his motorcycle by the explosion.
“When I got up, I saw the bus and quickly got into it. Some people lay dead. Some others were bleeding,” he said. “I heard somebody screaming ‘help, help,’ and I rushed to him, but I could not move him because he was heavy.”
The rebels, blamed for scores of suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians, are listed as a terrorist group by the US, the EU and India. They are believed to be behind a blast on Wednesday that targeted a passenger train in Colombo and wounded 19 people.
The Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, which has been marginalized by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed.
Since a long-standing peace process broke down nearly two years ago, fighting between the Tigers and government forces has steadily escalated along the northern front lines and in the east, where the military last year overran rebel-controlled enclaves.
But the rebels still run a de facto state in much of northern Sri Lanka and the government says it plans to completely crush the insurgents by the end of the year — a threat diplomats and other observers doubt Colombo has the ability to carry out.
So the fighting continues and the death toll rises, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.
Since the start of the year, more than 200 civilians have been killed by bombings in rebel and government territory, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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