Blasts kill 5 in Sri Lanka as bus bombing probed

Sat Jan 6, 2007 4:09am ET
By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attacks killed four soldiers and a civilian in north Sri Lanka on Saturday, as police questioned 18 people over a blast that killed six civilians and wounded dozens on a bus a day earlier.

Three soldiers and a civilian were killed when a truck hit a mine in the northern district of Vavuniya, while another soldier was killed in a similar attack on the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Police were still searching for the culprits of Friday's bus bombing 36 km (20 miles) outside Colombo -- the second such attack to directly target civilians rather than the military or politicians -- but had not yet made any arrests.

"We are still investigating. At the moment 18 people are being questioned, but no one is in custody," said E.W. Prathapasinghe, a Deputy Inspector General of Police for the island's Western Province.

Officials put the death toll at six, including one child, and said around 60 other passengers were hurt, 10 of them seriously.

"Every government has given promises of finishing the war, but they are only promises and a dream for us. We are suffering," 22-year-old survivor R. Rasika said from a Colombo hospital, unable to hear or see properly.

"People in the north are suffering and being killed too," the architecture student added. "The government needs to find a peaceful solution. This country is not just for (majority) Sinhalese people. I think we need to find a practical power sharing system.

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the blasts, but routinely deny involvement in bombings and ambushes.

"Yesterday's bombing bears all the hallmarks of Tiger attacks," said Iqbal Athas, an analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly. "The fact that they have now started targeting (civilians) is a cause for concern.

"One cannot rule out more attacks on civilians," he added.

More than 3,000 troops, civilians and rebel fighters were killed in a spree of ambushes, suicide bombings, air raids, naval clashes and land battles last year despite a 2002 ceasefire, which international monitors say now exists only on paper.

(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Buddhika Weerasinghe in COLOMBO)

((Editing by Jeremy Laurence; Colombo Newsroom +94-777-686-030, simon.gardner@reuters.com)