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Bomb targets Sri Lanka army chief
At least eight people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on Sri Lanka's army headquarters, while the head of the army has been seriously injured.
Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka is undergoing surgery in the capital Colombo, where the attack happened, a doctor said.
The military blames Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack and has launched air strikes on their positions in the east.
There has been a surge in violence in Sri Lanka recently, and the Tigers last week pulled out of planned peace talks.
The BBC Tamil service's Ethirajan Ambarasan says the attack will test the government's resolve to continue with the peace process with the Tigers.
Fake identification
Military officials say the attacker was a woman who disguised herself as being heavily pregnant to conceal the explosives.
She presented fake identification and said she had a pregnancy appointment at the army hospital inside the complex, unnamed officials told the Associated Press.
"A powerful blast activated by a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber claimed the lives of several army and civil personnel near the military hospital gate this afternoon," the army said in a statement.
There were 27 wounded, the army said.
The army headquarters are in a heavily guarded compound in central Colombo.
Lt Gen Fonseka is reported to have suffered severe abdominal injuries and has been taken to hospital.
"He is not out of danger, we are operating on him now," Dr Hector Weerasinghe of Colombo's National Hospital told AP news agency.
Lt Gen Fonseka was appointed head of the army shortly after the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse last November and has taken a hard line against the Tamil Tigers.
Police say the explosion bears all the hallmarks of the Tigers.
The Sri Lankan military said it has begun an aerial assault on rebel positions in eastern Sri Lanka.
It said the Tigers had earlier attacked Sri Lankan naval positions in Trincomalee district.
There has been no word on the attacks from the Tamil rebels.
Tamil Tiger rebels frequently use suicide bombers in their operations - and are thought to have carried out nearly 200 attacks since the first suicide bombing in July 1987, when a bomber in a truck filled with explosives killed 40 soldiers.
The rebels have denied being behind recent attacks.
Talks on hold
"Traditionally, it is the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] which has the capability to carry out an attack like this," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP agency.
This is the first suicide bombing in the Sri Lankan capital since July 2004, and the biggest attack blamed on the Tamil Tigers since they signed a truce with the government in 2002.
Nearby roads were closed after the blast, while the main highway connecting the northern government-controlled town of Jaffna to the rest of the country was also cut off by government troops.
Escalating violence in the north and east of the country has left about 100 people dead in the past three weeks.
The Tigers began their armed campaign for a separate homeland for the island's Tamil minority in the 1970s.
Efforts are continuing to persuade the rebels to return to peace talks in Switzerland. Last week they pulled out of negotiations, accusing the government of attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians.
The team of Norwegian envoys acting as mediators in the conflict has condemned the latest bombing but said it was not drawing "any immediate conclusions about the possible perpetrators".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4941744.stm
The military blames Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack and has launched air strikes on their positions in the east.
There has been a surge in violence in Sri Lanka recently, and the Tigers last week pulled out of planned peace talks.
The BBC Tamil service's Ethirajan Ambarasan says the attack will test the government's resolve to continue with the peace process with the Tigers.
Fake identification
Military officials say the attacker was a woman who disguised herself as being heavily pregnant to conceal the explosives.
She presented fake identification and said she had a pregnancy appointment at the army hospital inside the complex, unnamed officials told the Associated Press.
"A powerful blast activated by a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber claimed the lives of several army and civil personnel near the military hospital gate this afternoon," the army said in a statement.
There were 27 wounded, the army said.
The army headquarters are in a heavily guarded compound in central Colombo.
Lt Gen Fonseka is reported to have suffered severe abdominal injuries and has been taken to hospital.
"He is not out of danger, we are operating on him now," Dr Hector Weerasinghe of Colombo's National Hospital told AP news agency.
Lt Gen Fonseka was appointed head of the army shortly after the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse last November and has taken a hard line against the Tamil Tigers.
Police say the explosion bears all the hallmarks of the Tigers.
The Sri Lankan military said it has begun an aerial assault on rebel positions in eastern Sri Lanka.
It said the Tigers had earlier attacked Sri Lankan naval positions in Trincomalee district.
There has been no word on the attacks from the Tamil rebels.
Tamil Tiger rebels frequently use suicide bombers in their operations - and are thought to have carried out nearly 200 attacks since the first suicide bombing in July 1987, when a bomber in a truck filled with explosives killed 40 soldiers.
The rebels have denied being behind recent attacks.
Talks on hold
"Traditionally, it is the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] which has the capability to carry out an attack like this," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP agency.
This is the first suicide bombing in the Sri Lankan capital since July 2004, and the biggest attack blamed on the Tamil Tigers since they signed a truce with the government in 2002.
Nearby roads were closed after the blast, while the main highway connecting the northern government-controlled town of Jaffna to the rest of the country was also cut off by government troops.
Escalating violence in the north and east of the country has left about 100 people dead in the past three weeks.
The Tigers began their armed campaign for a separate homeland for the island's Tamil minority in the 1970s.
Efforts are continuing to persuade the rebels to return to peace talks in Switzerland. Last week they pulled out of negotiations, accusing the government of attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians.
The team of Norwegian envoys acting as mediators in the conflict has condemned the latest bombing but said it was not drawing "any immediate conclusions about the possible perpetrators".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4941744.stm
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Sri Lankan military jets have launched air strikes against areas held by the Tamil Tigers after a suicide bomb attack targeting the country's senior military general.
The female bomber killed eight people and injured 27 others, including Lt-Gen Sarath Fonseka, said a military spokesman.
A rebel official and witnesses said the military responded within hours with air strikes and mortar fire in the guerrilla-held region of Trincomalee, 135 miles north-east of Colombo. "There are at least two aircraft dropping bombs into our areas and there is shelling from army camps near by," a rebel spokesman said by telephone from Trincomalee.
The Defence Ministry in Colombo declined to comment, but witnesses who live in nearby areas confirmed the air strikes and shelling. No reports of casualties or damage were immediately available.
Earlier, a Tamil Tiger female suicide, pretending to be pregnant to conceal explosives, triggered a blast near a car carrying Lt-Gen Fonseka, the commander of the army, at military headquarters in the capital. He suffered serious abdominal injuries, a hospital official said. He was operated on by 10 surgeons and his condition was stable, said Dr Hector Weerasinghe of Colombo's National Hospital.
The bomber died instantly. It was not clear whether she was included in the figure of eight dead.
The attack and apparent military retaliation are certain to put further pressure on the country's four-year-old ceasefire, which has been threatened by a wave of violence this month that has killed at least 89 people, including at least 43 soldiers and police.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article360224.ece