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COLOMBO: At least 23 people were killed and 67 injured on Wednesday in a suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attack on a crowded bus in southwest Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said.
Officials said the bus, travelling from Buttala to Okkampitiya and also carrying schoolchildren, was hit by a powerful Claymore-type mine – a bomb packed with explosives and ball-bearings – apparently hidden on the bus or detonated on the roadside.
"Twenty-three civilians were killed and 67 were injured in the explosion," a statement said.
A local hospital official, Sumith Rajasuriya, said he had seen eight schoolchildren admitted for treatment. It was not clear if there were any children among the dead.
The defence ministry blamed the attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"LTTE terrorists have carried out a cowardly bomb blast targeting innocent schoolchildren at Okkampitiya, Monaragala," the ministry said, describing the rebels as "a ruthless terrorist outfit notorious for crimes against women and children."
The attack came as a 2002 Norwegian-brokered truce, which was in practice dead anyway, is set to officially end on Wednesday.
The government pulled out of the ceasefire two weeks ago, saying there was no point attempting to negotiate with "terrorists".
Sri Lankan government defence officials are convinced they have the upper hand in the long-running conflict, and have said peace is only possible when they kill the LTTE's leaders and capture their northern mini-state.
The LTTE, listed as a "terrorist" organisation by the United States and European Union, wants to carve out a separate homeland for Tamils in the north and east of the ethnic Sinhalese-majority tropical island.
The decades-old conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
The attack also came as fighting has been escalating in the north, with Colombo claiming it has killed 397 rebels since the start of the month against 20 government soldiers killed.
The island's military began the New Year with a vow to crush the Tigers by June, and set a target to kill 3,000 guerrillas in the first six months of the year.
But casualty claims are almost impossible to verify, as Sri Lankan authorities routinely prevent journalists and diplomats from travelling to frontlines or the northern jungles controlled by the LTTE.
A week ago, Sri Lanka's nation building minister D. M. Dassanayake was also killed in a roadside bombing near Colombo that was blamed on the rebels.
- AFP/so
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