COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A suspected female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up Monday while being frisked by soldiers processing civilians fleeing from Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, killing at least 28 people and wounding 60, the military said.
The blast took place at a crowded refugee camp in Vishvamadu, a town in the north of the Indian Ocean island that recently was captured by the military, part of its ongoing offensive to corner the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and end a 25-year war, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. An estimated 20 soldiers were killed along with at least eight women and children, he said.
“A large number of civilians are coming in seeking protection from the army,” said Nanayakkara. “When we were checking this female — by a woman soldier — she exploded herself. It shows their desperation.”
The suicide attack also showed the complicated nature of the conflict along with increased concerns about the ever-shrinking space for civilians during the war’s final battles. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that 250,000 people are trapped amid the fighting, although the government says that number is far lower. The rebels could not be reached for comment since communication to the north is severed. Journalists are not permitted to the front lines of the war, so reports are difficult to verify.
“What we do know is that this northern population has been displaced several times and they are now cornered in a very small area. This now means these people have no space to go to,” said Sophie Romanens, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Colombo.
President Mahinda Rajapakse has refused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s calls for a “temporary no-fire period” to allow civilians to evacuate the combat zone. Rajapakse warned rebels at a rally this past weekend to surrender or face death.
The Tamil Tigers have waged war since 1983 for a separate state for the nation’s ethnic Tamil Hindu and Christian minorities, who claim decades of economic and racial discrimination at the hands of governments controlled by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
