Sri Lanka

23 dead in two bus bombs

Article published on the 2008-06-06 Latest update 2008-06-06 13:11 TU

A solider guards the wreckage of a bus near Colombo on June 8, 2008.
(Photo: Reuters)

Two separate bombs killed 23 people and injured 67 in attacks on public transport buses in Sri Lanka. The first went off outside the capital, Colombo. A second bomb went off in the central district of Kandy. The Sri Lankan military is blaming the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the attacks.

The Defence Ministry sealed off the area of the first blast. No arrests have been made but a second bomb in the area was found and diffused, said police.

Hostilities have escalated since the beginning of 2008, when the government pulled out of a truce with the rebels.

A number of attacks carried out in and around Colombo over the past few weeks have also been blamed on the Tigers.

"Very clearly, if it is the LTTE as it is commonly believed to be the LTTE, they are wanting to make sure that the costs of war to the government and the population in the south rise to punitive levels and force a rethink on the part of the government strategy," Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, told RFI.

Both attacks occurred after the LTTE reported that civilians in the rebel-held north had been killed by roadside bombings allegedly carried out by government commando units.

The Tigers are fighting to create a separate Tamil state within the Sinhalese-majority island.