Suicide-bomber kills 7 in Colombo

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, SEPT. 15. At least seven people were killed and 23 wounded when a suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blew himself up in front of a busy hospital in the heart of the capital this morning.

The Health Minister, Mr. Nimal Sripala de Silva, whose office is situated next to the hospital, had passed the site seven minutes before the bombing, the state-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation radio said.

Mr. De Silva was the target of an LTTE suicide assassin in Jaffna in 1996, but escaped unhurt in the attack which killed several others including a top army official.

Police officials at the site of the bombing said the suicide cadre detonated himself while being questioned by a constable outside the National Eye Hospital located near the city Town Hall.

The constable and the bomber were both blown apart. Three others died in hospital. The condition of 10 of the wounded is reported to be serious. Most of those who sustained injuries were passers- by. A van that had minutes earlier brought some police personnel to the hospital was severely damaged in the explosion.

Police said an Army vehicle that was passing by at the time and was damaged in the explosion might not have been specifically targeted by the bomber. Two security personnel in the vehicle were among the injured.

The suicide bombing has heightened fears of more LTTE terrorist strikes in the run-up to the October 10 parliamentary elections. A senior police official had last week warned political parties preparing for the elections that a number of suicide bombers had recently infiltrated the capital. As a result, election meetings in the city were banned.

Two 12-kg explosives which police said were being transported to the capital were detected at a checkpost in Kalmunai in the eastern district of Ampara on Thursday.

The UNP general secretary, Mr. Gamini Athukorale, said last week a request to the police to increase the security arrangements of party leader, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, had not yet elicited a response.

It was only a few hundred metres away from today's bombing, at the Town Hall, that an LTTE suicide cadre had attempted to assassinate the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, as she was leaving her last election meeting of the December 1999 presidential campaign.

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Section  : International
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