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COLOMBO: Twenty people were killed and many others injured Wednesday in a suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attack on a crowded bus in southwest Sri Lanka, officials said.
"At least 20 people have been killed and several are injured. It was a state-run bus with at least 60 civilians on it, including schoolchildren," Sri Lankan military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The defence ministry said the bus, travelling from Buttala to Okkampitiya, was hit by a fragmentation bomb apparently hidden on the bus. In all 50 people were killed or injured, it said.
It 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 abandoned 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 the north.
Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting since 1972 to carve out a separate state in the north and east of the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
- AFP/yb
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