The blast occurred just hours after the armed forces held a defiant show of military prowess in the capital to mark the country's 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - At least a dozen people were killed in a suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attack on a civilian bus in north-east Sri Lanka on Monday, the military said.
The blast occurred just hours after the armed forces held a defiant show of military prowess in the capital to mark the country's 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.
"It was a Tamil Tiger claymore mine targeting a civilian bus in Weli-oya. Twelve were killed and 17 admitted to hospital," a military spokesman said.
Weli-oya is in the north-eastern district of Polonnaruwa, about 200 km (120 miles) from Colombo.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Monday's blast is the latest in a series of bomb attacks blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the rebel group fighting to create an independent state in the island's north and east.
On Saturday, a bomb exploded on a civilian bus in the central Sri Lankan town of Dambulla, killing at least 18 people and wounding 50, the military said.
The following day, a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up in a packed railway station in Colombo, killing 11 people and wounding 92, the military said.
Fighting between the military and the rebels has intensified since the government scrapped a truce agreement last month, saying the rebels were using it to rebuild and re-arm and were not sincere about talking peace.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed in recent weeks and analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses. An estimated 70,000 people have died in the conflict since it began 1983.
(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Simon Gardner; Editing by David Fogarty)
