Five civilians were killed and over 30 others were injured when
a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus traveling near the Sri
Lankan capital of Colombo late Friday afternoon, defense officials
said.
"The explosion happened around 6:40 PM local time (1310 GMT) and
the bus was full of passengers at that time," said the military
spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.
The privately owned bus was traveling between Nittambuwa, about
39 km northeast of Colombo and Giriulla when it exploded on the
main Colombo-Kandy A1 highway, according to police.
An officer from the Media Center for National Security said the
military suspected the bomb attack was the work of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.
Samarasinghe said it was too early for the investigators to
state what caused the blast -- if it was a hand grenade or a
powerful bomb.
The bus was immediately in flames after the explosion, eye
witnesses said.
The injured were admitted to the nearby Wathupitiwala hospital.
Officials of the hospital said the condition of 10 civilians was
critical.
The authorities in Colombo's main hospitals said they were on
alert for casualties as around 80 passengers were thought to be
traveling in the ill-fated bus at the time of the blast.
Keheliya Rambukwela, defense spokesman of the government said
earlier that the LTTE is carrying out terror attacks against
civilians unable to bear the continuous defeats at the hands of the
security forces.
The Norwegian backed peace process and the truce agreement
signed between the government and the LTTE in 2002 are currently
stalled in the face of escalating violence since December 2005.
More than 3,800 people were killed despite pleas from the
international community on both sides to revive the process of
direct negotiations.
(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2007)
