Suicide bomber kills 27 injures 90 in Sri Lanka
A suicide bomber has killed 27 people in the north of the country
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Monday, 06, Oct 2008 08:05
A suicide bomber has killed 27 people in Sri Lanka as they gathered outside opposition party offices in the north of the country.
Reports suggest the bomber hugged a former army general before detonating an explosive vest he was wearing.
The attack happened as government troops, who are in the middle of an offensive against the Tamil Tigers de facto state in the north, closed in on the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The bomber blew himself up as officials from the opposition United National Party gathered to open a new office in the northern town of Anuradhapura. The blast killed retired Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera, his wife and 25 others, including a television journalist covering the event. It wounded at least 80 people, Nanayakkara said.
Wearing a hidden explosives vest, the bomber "embraced the former commander" before detonating, the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported, noting that Perera played a key role in evicting minority Tamils from northeastern villages in 1984 to settle ethnic Sinhalese there.