Suicide bomb sours Sri Lanka's celebrations

Sri Lanka’s independence day was overshadowed by the effects of a suicide bomb at the main railway station in the capital Colombo today.

The country was today marking the 60th anniversary of its independence just 24 hours after a female suicide bomber killed at least 11 people and wounded 92 others.

The blast was blamed by authorities on Tamil Tiger rebels.

“I was near my counter and I heard a big blast. When I looked behind I saw a policeman bleeding,” said Ravindra Pinto, a ticket inspector at the station.

“As I took him and rushed out, I saw many men and women on the ground,” said Mr Pinto, who was not wounded in the blast.

Earlier Sunday a grenade exploded at a zoo on the outskirts of Colombo, wounding at least four people.

A day earlier a bomb on a bus killed 18 people, mostly Buddhist pilgrims, in the central town of Dambulla, about 90 miles northeast of Colombo.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamils after decades of being marginalised by Sinhalese-dominated governments. The fighting has killed more than 70,000 people.

The military said yesterday that fighting between troops and rebels along the front lines surrounding rebel-held territory in northern Sri Lanka killed 32 rebels and two soldiers.

More than 700 people, including many civilians, have been killed in intensified violence since the government withdrew from a ceasefire with the Tigers last month.

The United States, the European Union and India all list the Tigers as a terror group.