COLOMBO (AFP) — A parcel bomb planted by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels exploded on a bus in a Colombo suburb on Saturday, wounding at least 18 people in the latest in a string of violent attacks, the defence ministry said.
Casualties would have been far greater if an alert passenger had not spotted the booby-trapped package and shouted at people to get out of the vehicle, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
"I noticed a parcel left behind on a vacant seat. When no-one claimed it, I alerted the bus crew and shouted at people to get off," passenger Mervyn Silva told AFP.
The driver then moved the white bus towards an isolated spot and the crew went to inform a nearby police station when the explosion took place, injuring passersby, the defence ministry said.
"The terrorists' beastly intention to commit carnage against civilians was foiled due to the vigilance of the civilians themselves," the defence ministry said. Terrorists is the word that the government uses to describe the rebels.
There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are fighting for independence for Sri Lanka's minority ethnic Tamils, concentrated in the north and east of the island.
Ten men, seven women and a child were admitted to hospital after suffering minor injuries in the blast in Mount Lavinia, 10 kilometres (six miles) south of the capital of Colombo, the ministry said.
"The private bus was completely destroyed by fire from the explosion," the defence ministry said.
Earlier this month, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels used a parcel bomb to blow up a crowded bus in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 20 people.
The new violence came as the defence ministry said war planes bombed a rebel military base inside Tamil Tiger-controlled territory in the northern town of Oddusan early on Saturday.
Air force pilots said they had "accurately hit" and "completely destroyed" the base.
There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, though the rebels said a similar air strike on guerrilla targets on Friday killed eight civilians.
On Friday, six guerrillas died when troops fired at rebels who tried to infiltrate the state-run Weli Oya region. Artillery duels across the island's north on Friday also left 31 rebels and a soldier dead, the ministry said.
According to the defence ministry, some 1,487 rebels have been killed so far this year. The military estimates the rebel strength at 5,000 combatants.
The military said 84 soldiers and police have been killed in 2008.
Casualty figures provided by both sides differ vastly and cannot be independently verified since the government bars journalists and human rights workers from frontline and rebel-held areas.
The Sri Lankan government last month officially pulled out of a truce with the guerrillas, who have fought for more than three decades for a homeland in the Sinhalese-majority island.
The army says it is winning the ethnic war and President Mahinda Rajapakse has promised to wipe out the rebels.
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