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Five killed, 30 injured in Sri Lanka bus blast

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: At least five persons were killed and 30 were injured as an explosion ripped through the bus they were travelling near Colombo on Friday evening.

It was not clear what triggered the explosion.

A Government statement quoting officials of a hospital said 10 of the injured were in a critical condition. Defence Spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella alleged that the LTTE was carrying out terror attacks against civilians unable to bear the continuous defeats at the hands of the security forces.

The blast came amid intensified battle between the army and the Tamil Tigers in the north and east in the last few days and a declaration by the military that it was determined to oust the LTTE from its bastion Vaharai.

Following a series of bombings on "select LTTE targets" by the air force this week, there have been warnings from the Tiger leaders of "serious consequences."

Even otherwise the ground situation in the island nation has been precarious ever since the "Hero's Day Message" of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran that "Sinhala duplicity of war and peace" has left the Tamils with little option but to pursue Eelam.

The air force said it destroyed what it claimed a Sea Tiger base at Chilawwate in Mullaittivu district.

TamilNet maintained that seven civilians were injured, two critically, when the jets bombed a tsunami resettlement village in the Mullaithivu district.

It said army troopers and the police simultaneously stormed the regional offices of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation in Trincomalee and Vavuniya, arrested NGO officials and seized all the documents.

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