Suicide bomber kills four
A suspected Tamil Tiger rebel detonated explosives at a police station in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo today, killing herself and four others, police said. Seven people were wounded in the blast.
Police arrested the woman in a crowded business district on suspicion that she was planning a suicide bombing, police spokesman Rienzie Perera said. She was taken to the station for questioning, where she blew herself up.
“It is now clear that it was a terrorist act,” Perera said.
The Kollupitiya Police Station is opposite the US Embassy and the British High Commission.
The bomber’s apparent target was Douglas Devananda, a Tamil leader who opposes the rebels.
Devananda’s office is near the police station, but he was not there at the time of the blast.
Tamil Tiger rebels were known for attacking Sri Lankan security forces and political rivals with suicide bombers during their nearly two decades of civil war. But a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire has halted the fighting.
Tension has mounted between the military and the Tamil Tiger rebels since a March split on the rebel movement. The mainstream rebels accuse the military of helping a renegade leader.
