The Hindu : Front Page : Sri Lankan Army Chief injured in attack

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Sri Lankan Army Chief injured in attack

V.S. Sambandan

Ten killed as woman suicide bomber blows herself up; Air Force launches deterrent sorties in the East

COLOMBO: The Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, Sarath Fonseka, survived an assassination attempt by a suspected woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) inside the Army Headquarters here on Tuesday afternoon.

At least 10 persons, including civilians, were killed and 26 others injured when the suicide bomber, disguised as a pregnant woman, blew herself up. .

Lt. Gen. Fonseka was rushed to the National Hospital here in a critical condition. After hours of surgery, shrapnel were removed and his condition is "stable," an Army spokesperson said in the night.

Hours after the attack, the situation was near-normal in Colombo, but it was tense in the rebel-controlled eastern Trincomalee district. According to reports from the east, fighter jets of the Air Force flew sorties over the rebel-held parts of the district in the evening. A senior Minister described the sorties as a "deterrent against further rebel attacks."

In an official statement, the Government said, "following the suicide bomb attack on the Army Commander, the LTTE positioned in the Sampur area launched an attack on the Navy in Trincomalee. The security forces have carried out an operation to deter further attacks by the LTTE."

"According to our Trincomalee MP, aerial bombardments were carried out over a rebel-controlled area. We do not have any information on casualties," said Suresh Premachandran, parliamentary coordinator of the LTTE-backed Tamil National Alliance.

An Army source said the bomber gained access into the tightly guarded Army Headquarters complex in the heart of Colombo "as today was a day marked for pregnant wives of soldiers."

"She was near the Army hospital when she jumped on the car in which the Army Commander was travelling, around 1.30 p.m. An alert motorcycle outrider, who noticed her suspicious movements, tried to push her away thereby minimising the damage to a certain extent," the source said.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission "strongly condemned" the attack as "yet another serious blow to the ceasefire agreement and the peace process." It "is likely to have very negative effects on the relationship between the Government and the LTTE and could jeopardise any possibility of future talks."

The Mission said the armed forces "have shown restraint and refrained from massive retaliation" in the face of "countless attacks in the last few weeks," and urged the Government to refrain from any retaliatory action now also and remain committed to the peace process.

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