 Blasts blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels have killed 16 people in Sri Lanka's northeast and injured dozens more. The latest violence triggered fresh fears that planned peace talks may be cancelled and a civil war could restart.
| Lemme 'splain something to yez: Explosions do not endanger peace. They break peace. |
| Kickstarting the ol' cycle of violence. |
| I think it's more like getting your pants leg caught in the chain of your cycle of violence... |
Two policemen died in a claymore mine ambush on Wednesday while one soldier and four civilians were killed in a blast in a crowded marketplace in the port town of Trincomalee, the army said.
| Claymore mines are not something that you accidentally set up and detonate. |
Another nine people died in riots that followed.
| I try to avoid riots, myself. But then, I do live someplace relatively peaceful, without Claymores going off periodically. It'll probably come someday, but not now... |
An army spokesman said of the second attack: "It was blast by an army point by the clock tower."
| "Hey, Mahendrajayajushkalakshmivarman! Let's go accidentally blow up the army point by the clock tower!" |
"We think it was LTTE. We don't think it was a grenade. With the soldier, they only found half his body," he added, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.
| Comes as a surprise, huh? I had the perps pegged as the Mormon Liberation Front, too. All the signs pointed to it... |
More than 30 people have now died since Friday in a dramatic rise in violence in what looks to be the bloodiest few days since a 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of civil war that killed more than 64,000 people. Peace talks between the government and the LTTE are planned for next week in Switzerland, but diplomats are increasingly doubtful the meeting will take place.
| It's pretty obvious at least one faction doesn't want them to... |
The LTTE, who have run a de facto state across a seventh of Sri Lanka since the truce, were not immediately available for comment but they have denied carrying out recent attacks. Few analysts believe them.
| If you can't believe the Super Mario Brothers, who can you believe? |
In Trincomalee, which has large populations both from Tamil and Muslim communities as well as Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority, the attack was followed by angry rioting in which officials and witnesses said Tamil shops were attacked and burnt. Police said some 50 people were injured but a curfew had restored order. Earlier, international truce monitors described the situation as out of control. |