Bomb Kills 17 Near Sri Lankan Capital
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bomb Kills 17 Near Sri Lankan Capital*
By ERANGA JAYAWARDENA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; 3:11 PM
NUGEGODA, Sri Lanka -- Ethnic Tamil separatists set off a bomb at a
popular department store in a suburb of the capital Wednesday, killing
17 people in a rare attack targeting civilians, the Sri Lankan military
said.
The blast, which came just hours after a suicide bomber tried to kill a
Cabinet minister, showed that the Tamil Tiger rebels are still capable
of striking deep in government territory despite months of punishing
military attacks on their power base in the north.
The attacks came a day after the rebels said that 22 civilians,
including 11 schoolchildren, were killed in attacks inside
rebel-controlled territory. They blamed the military, but the government
denied responsibility for the roadside bombing that killed the children.
Fearing Wednesday's bombings were only the first in a wave of rebel
attacks, officials ordered all schools to close for the rest of the week
in Western Province, which includes Colombo, the capital.
"The general public should be extra vigilant about their surroundings,
especially in trains, buses, crowded areas and even in schools," police
spokesman Jayantha Wickremarathna said.
The explosion at the four-story No Limits department store in Nugegoda
occurred after a security guard became suspicious of a package left with
him for safekeeping and called over a police officer. The package
exploded when they tried to open it, a military spokesman, Brig. Udaya
Nanayakkara, said.
He blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels, who have been fighting since 1983 to
carve out a homeland for ethnic Tamils in this island nation just off
India's southern tip. The rebels accuse the Sinhalese majority of
discrimination.
The blast hit as commuters crowded a nearby bus stop during rush hour.
Shattered glass and crumbled concrete lay on the bloodstained sidewalk,
and twisted, charred parts of motorcycles and three-wheeled taxis were
scattered nearby.
ad_icon
"I was on the top floor of a shoe shop with my wife and child when I
heard a big blast and there were glass pieces all over us," A. Jayasena
told AP Television News. "As we ran away, I saw the entrance of the No
Limit shop burning, and in the midst of it, a schoolgirl on the floor
trying to get up and then falling back again."
Jayasena and his daughter suffered minor injuries, while his wife was
hospitalized with more serious wounds, he said.
Police and firefighters were searching the rubble for more bodies late
Wednesday. At least 17 people died and dozens were injured, the military
said.
"We know that the attack bears all the hallmarks of the LTTE. It is
nobody else but the LTTE," Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said,
referring to the rebel movement by the initials of its formal name, the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Tamil Tigers, listed as a terror organization by the United States
and the European Union, have carried out more than 240 suicide bombings
and countless other attacks during a war that has seen more than 70,000
people killed.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls from The
Associated Press seeking comment Wednesday evening.
The rebels have previously killed civilians in attacks on economic
targets like the central bank and on religious shrines. In the past two
years, rebel bombers had avoided deliberately targeting civilians,
though they have ambushed military convoys at crowded places, causing
many civilian deaths.
On Wednesday morning, a suicide bomber blew herself up at Sri Lanka's
social services ministry in the heart of Colombo in an unsuccessful
attempt to kill the agency's minister, Douglas Devananda, who heads an
ethnic Tamil party considered a rival to the rebels, the military said.
Devananda, the target of repeated assassination attempts, was not
injured, but the blast killed one of his staff members and injured two
others, officials said. The bomber also died.
___
Associated Press writer Krishan Francis in Colombo contributed to this
report.