A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed at least 11 people at the main railway station in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, yesterday on the eve of the 60th anniversary of independence.

The woman bomber also injured more than 100 others when she blew herself up on a crowded platform, officials and witnesses said, in the deadliest attack on Colombo since the Government scrapped a ceasefire with the Tigers last month.

A wave of violence across the country since the truce was dissolved has now killed more than 700 people — including many civilians. Attacks on Colombo are particularly damaging for the Government, as the city is a staging post for the foreign investors and tourists who prop up the economy.

The suicide attack came just a few hours after a grenade attack injured at least seven people at Colombo’s Dehiwala Zoo — a popular destination for residents on public holidays. On Saturday, another bomb on a bus killed 18 people, mostly Buddhist pilgrims, in the town of Dambulla, about 90 miles northeast of the capital.

The Government blamed all three attacks on the Tigers — whose official name is the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) — and accused the group of trying to sow panic ahead of today’s anniversary celebrations. The centrepiece is a full military parade along the seafront in Colombo, with more than 4,100 extra soldiers and thousands more paramilitary troops being deployed to ensure security.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who won an election in 2005 pledging a harder line against the Tigers, accused the group of trying to compensate for the defeats it has suffered recently in the north and east. “I call upon the people to remain calm and refuse to be provoked by this repeated brutality by the LTTE, which in its desperation . . . is eager to create a backlash to its terror to obtain the sympathy of the international community,” he said.

The Tigers, who were not immediately available for comment yesterday, usually deny being involved in any attacks on civilians.

The Government has pledged to crush the group militarily by the middle of this year. Last month it drew international criticism by withdrawing from a ceasefire brokered by Norway in 2002 and launching a major offensive against the Tigers in the north.

The Black Tigers

— Tamil Tiger suicide squads, known as the Black Tigers, have carried out more than 240 attacks since 1983

— Many of the suicide bombers are women

— On October 16, 2006, Black Tigers targeted a Sri Lankan naval convoy, killing 93 sailors in one of their bloodiest attacks

Source: Jane’s; globalsecurity.org; Times archive

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