Hours later, the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said two jets bombed areas in
the north of the country, but it provided no other details. Samarasinghe
confirmed the bombings, saying the air force was taking limited deterrent
action.
Samarasinghe blamed the Tigers for the bus explosion, saying their "motive is
to create terror." Police said the victims were primarily ethnic Sinhalese.
A doctor at the hospital where the victims were taken, S.B. Bothota, said 15
schoolchildren were among the 62 killed. Another 78 people were wounded, he
said.
But a senior rebel leader countered the accusation by suggesting the attack
could be "the work of forces seeking to create ethnic tension between the
Sinhalese and the Tamil population."
"The Liberation Tigers condemn the attack on civilians in strongest possible
terms," Seevaratnam Puleedevan was quoted as saying by TamilNet.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought for 20 years to carve out a
separate homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east for the country's 3.2 million
minority Tamils, who are largely Hindu. The majority of Sri Lankans are
Sinhalese Buddhists.
A cease-fire four years ago ended large-scale fighting, but violence has
persisted, intensifying following the assassination last August of Foreign
Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. The government blamed the killing on the Tigers.
Four months later, the Tigers killed 12 navy sailors -- the first major
attack in four years -- and the situation on the ground has only deteriorated
since then, with violence that has left more than 600 soldiers, rebels and
civilians dead.
Both sides have blamed the other for the renewed violence, and the Tigers
also routinely blame a breakaway rebel faction for attacks on civilians.
Diplomatic efforts to quell the violence and get the peace process back on track
have not progressed very far.
The Tigers pulled out of peace talks in April, and then last week scuttled
negotiations by refusing to meet representatives of the government side after
arriving in Oslo, Norway, the venue for the talks.