MANY DEAD IN SRI LANKA AL SHABAB BUS BLAST!!!

[Daanyeer]

Many dead in Sri Lanka bus blast
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7367468.stm
April 25, 2008

At least 24 people have been killed and about 50 wounded by a bombing on a bus in the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, officials have said.

The blast happened during rush hour while the bus stopped to pick up passengers in the city's southern suburb of Piliyandala, they added.

A government spokesman blamed the Tamil Tiger rebel group.

Violence in Sri Lanka has intensified since January, when the government pulled out of a ceasefire agreement.

Earlier, the military said its troops had taken control of a church containing the country's most important Roman Catholic shrine.

It is horrible, I saw many people laying on the ground
RB Dharmasiry

The shrine lies on the front line in the town of Madhu in the northern Mannar region.

Both sides in the conflict have recently accused each other of shelling the revered complex, and photographs have shown considerable damage.

'Cowardly act'

The government spokesman, Lakshman Hulugalle, told the BBC that a parcel bomb was left inside the vehicle packed with people returning home from work.

The bomb exploded as the bus pulled away from a stop.

Mr Hulugalle blamed the Tamil Tigers for what he called a "cowardly attack on civilians".

A police spokesman said 10 people died on the spot and another 14 died while being taken to hospital.

Fifty-two wounded people were being treated at two hospitals, the spokesman added.

Witnesses described a large fireball coming out of the bus, which was torn apart by the explosion.

"It is horrible, I saw many people laying on the ground," RB Dharmasiry told the Associated Press news agency.

The rebels, who are fighting for an independent state for the Tamil minority, have not commented on the blast.

A similar attack injured 18 people in a Colombo suburb in February, and in the same month suspected Tamil Tiger rebels exploded a parcel bomb on a crowded bus in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 20 people.

The attack comes as government forces continue a campaign against the Tigers in territory they control in the north of the island.

On Wednesday, the two sides fought a fierce battle in the Jaffna peninsula. The military said it left more than 80 soldiers dead or missing but insisted the rebels had lost even more fighters, as well as their first line of defences.

The rebels said they had repulsed the military's advance and inflicted a defeat on the government forces.

At least 70,000 people have died since the civil war began in 1983.

[Highland]

Al Shabab Tamil Tigers.