COLOMBO, February 6: A female human bomb blew herself up after grabbing a woman soldier at a road check-point in the heart of the city today, officials said.Besides the bomber and the woman soldier, a second woman soldier, two airmen and two male accomplices of the bomber were killed, while two more airmen were injured, they said.
Miraculously, there were no civilian casualties, though several vehicles carrying office-goers returning home were passing by, they said.
An air force spokesperson said the incident occurred when the van in which the female suicide bomber, believed to be a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was travelling with two of her male accomplices, was stopped and checked at an air force check-point in the congested slave island area.
He said the three occupants of the vehicle got down and even as their identity was being checked, the unidentified suicide bomber grabbed the nearest women soldier and set off an apparent jacket bomb she was wearing, similar to theone Rajiv Gandhi's assassin wore.
The spokesperson said the rebel's target may have been air force chief Oliver Ranasinghe as there had been intelligence reports that the LTTE had conducted reconnaissance of the area around the air force headquarters, less than 200 metres from the scene of the blast.
Journalists who visited the scene later saw parts of the mangled bodies of the suicide bomber and the woman soldier strewn about under the impact of the blast. The van in which the bomber had come was intact but for the shattered glasses, while a passenger bus, which was right behind, was damaged.
The blast came hours after Prince Charles left the island after a three-day visit, marked by tight security. He was the chief guest at the country's 50th anniversary celebrations of Independence on Wednesday.
The function was attended by several foreign ministers, including Minister of State for External Affairs Kamal Sinha, who left for New Delhi today.
Today's blast occurred less than a km away from theWorld Trade Centre in Fort which was the target of an LTTE truck-bomb attack on October 15. That blast devastated the city's financial district, extensively damaged three luxury hotels and left 18 people, including five rebels, dead and over 100 people injured.
Exactly a month later, the rebels set off bomb blasts at a thermal power station on the outskirts of the city, but there was no serious damage or casualties.
Today, the suicide squad apparently tried to breach the city's security, hoping that the police and the security forces would be less vigilant than in the past few days, when the city gave the appearance of being under siege.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
