Suicide bomber kills top general in motorcycle attack

A SUICIDE bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a car carrying Sri Lanka’s third-highest ranking military officer yesterday and blew himself up, killing the general and three other people, officials said.

Authorities immediately blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels, but President Mahinda Rajapakse urged Sri Lankans to remain calm and said his government would “act with patience” — a sign officials may be weighing options amid fears that the cycle of attack-and-retaliation could push Sri Lanka back into all-out war.

“These killings are further examples of the (Tiger’s) concerted efforts to derail the peace process,” Mr Rajapakse said in a statement.

But the rebels later denied any role.

A top insurgent leader, Seevaratnam Puleedevan, said the Tigers were abiding by a ceasefire agreement and were committed to the peace process — the latest in a series of denials that few diplomats, officials or analysts seem to believe.

Four months of violence have brought Sri Lanka dangerously close to the brink of war, and yesterday’s blast — a rare attack so close to the capital — came just over two months after an attempted suicide attack against Sri Lanka’s top military commander in Colombo, blamed on the Tigers.

The car carrying Major General Parami Kulatunga was taking the general to work in Colombo when it was hit by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

The attack took place close to Maj Gen Kulatunga’s home in Pannipitiya, nine miles south-east of Colombo’s city centre.

Maj Gen Kulatunga was a hardened combat veteran who had led numerous operations against the rebels in Sri Lanka’s north-east, the scene of most of the fighting during nearly two decades of full-scale war.

The general’s Peugeot was obliterated by the explosion and subsequent fire, with little remaining but a smouldering heap of twisted metal and ashes by late morning. The major general survived the initial blast only to die on the way to the city’s National Hospital.

In the wake of the attack, the army announced that it will institute security measures that were relaxed after a 2002 government-rebel ceasefire.

Authorities will erect roadblocks and checkpoints, and all goods brought in from rebel-held areas will be checked, the military said on its website.

The blast also killed the general’s driver, a security guard and a civilian passer-by, the military said. Five other bystanders were wounded and admitted to a hospital.

For many, yesterday’s attack was further confirmation that a 2002 ceasefire has collapsed and the government and Tigers are now fighting a low-intensity war, even if both sides say they are committed to the peace process.