Sri Lanka hits Tigers after suicide blast kills 9

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's military attacked Tamil Tiger rebel targets on Tuesday in retaliation after a suicide attack on the army's headquarters that killed nine, raising fears a battered cease-fire might be collapsing.

Earlier in the day, a suspected Black Tiger suicide bomber pretending to be pregnant blew herself up in an attack on the army's commander, bringing violence that had been confined to the north and east to the capital.

The government said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had clashed with naval patrol boats in Trincomalee harbour, but that the air and artillery strikes that followed - the first official military action against the rebels since the 2002 truce - did not mean a return to a two-decade civil war.

But while the military said attacks in the Trincomalee area had ceased, an army source further south in Batticaloa said troops were exchanging fire with Tiger positions.

"The LTTE did something this afternoon that clearly breached the cease-fire," head of the government peace secretariat, Palitha Kohona, told Reuters. "The government had to act. We still hope that the LTTE will decide to come to talks."

The Tigers said they came under attack from Kfir fighter jets and artillery in the northeastern Trincomalee district, but there was no immediate word on casualties. They denied responsibility for the Colombo attack, just as they had for other recent ambushes on the military.

"We are not pulling out from the cease-fire agreement or anything," said rebel media co-ordinator Daya Master.

Addressing the nation after the strikes, President Mahinda Rajapakse barely mentioned the cease-fire, saying his government would not give in to terror. He said he was concerned by recent killings of ethnic minority Tamil civilians.

"I make a fervent appeal to all our people not to take the law into their own hands," he said.

About 110 people have died in the bloodiest two weeks since the Norwegian-brokered cease-fire halted the civil war that killed more than 64,000, with the rebels still keen to win their goal of a Tamil homeland in the island's north and east.

Peace talks were supposed to take place in Geneva this week but arrangements became deadlocked on over how to transport a group of eastern rebel commanders to attend a pre-talks meeting.

But the rebels' real complaint is what they say is government complicity with a breakaway rebel group in the east attacking the mainstream Tigers.

With mediator Norway still trying to secure talks, the Nordic mission monitoring the truce called for restraint.

"My assessment - which is also my hope - is that this is a limited retaliatory strike for today's attack," Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, told Reuters.

The United States and European Union both condemned the suicide bombing, calling for progress on the peace process.

"It is an unacceptable act of terror, a clear provocation and an escalation of violence," US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters in Washington.

Both the Tiger attack and the government retaliation were acts of war, analysts and diplomats said, warning escalation could be hard to stop.

The military said Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, a decorated combat veteran who said the truce was too soft on the rebels, had been undergoing surgery but was out of danger after the blast.

The army said eight people - in addition to the bomber - both civilian and military, had been killed and 27 wounded inside army headquarters, one of the most secure places in the country. Army photos showed corpses covered with plastic sheeting, and body parts strewn around.

The Colombo All-Share Index fell more than 3 per cent after the blast, before recovering to close down 2.33 per cent.

"Tomorrow there will be more panic selling and people will get emotional," said stockbroker Harsha Fernando before the government retaliation. "Twenty years of war have brought us nothing. We have to talk."

- REUTERS