COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – A bomber pretending to be pregnant talked her way into a military complex Tuesday, then blew herself up in front of a car carrying the Sri Lankan army commander, killing eight people and wounding the officer and 26 others.
Government warplanes quickly struck at areas held by the Tamil Tiger rebel movement in a new round of escalating violence that threatens to shred a four-year-old truce in the island’s civil war.
Tensions have been worsening along with violence that has killed at least 89 people, including 43 soldiers or police, just this month.
The rebels accuse the Sinhalese-dominated government of discriminating against minority Tamils and want a separate homeland on the island, which lies off India’s southern tip. Before the 2002 truce stopped large-scale fighting, more than 65,000 people died in two decades of war.
Last week, the rebels backed out of peace talks that had been scheduled to start Monday in Geneva, citing attacks on Tamil civilians and other disputes with the government.
No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack on Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, but the rebels have a history of using suicide bombers.
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