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Rebels blamed in Sri Lankan bus bombing
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 7, 2007
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A bomb on a Sri Lankan passenger bus killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens more Saturday, officials said, blaming Tamil Tiger rebels for the country's second bus bombing in as many days. The blast, which police suspect was triggered by a female suicide bomber, could signal an escalation of the bloody ethnic conflict ravaging the island nation off southern India. Police blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for the bus attack in the coastal town of Meetiyagoda, 60 miles south of the capital, Colombo, and near a number of popular resort towns. Though violence has risen sharply in Sri Lanka over the past year, most of it has occurred in the ethnic Tamil-dominated north and east, where the rebels run their own de facto state. A 2002 cease-fire between the rebels and the government has come under serious threat as more than 3,600 fighters and civilians were killed in renewed fighting in 2006. The cease-fire still officially holds. In other violence Saturday, three separate roadside bombings, blamed on the insurgents, killed four soldiers and a civilian in the north. The Tigers have made suicide bombings a hallmark of their two-decade campaign to carve out a separate state for the minority Tamils, who suffered years of discrimination. However, the Tigers denied any role in Saturday's bloodshed.
[Last modified January 7, 2007, 01:08:00]
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