Bomber kills 8, hurts 27 at military headquarters

The U.S. is organizing a pressure campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- A bomber pretending to be pregnant talked her way into a military complex Tuesday, then blew herself up in front of a car carrying the Sri Lankan army commander, killing eight people and wounding the officer and 26 others.
Government warplanes quickly struck at areas held by the Tamil Tiger rebel movement in a new round of escalating violence that threatens to shred a four-year-old truce in the island's civil war.
"This attack is yet another blow to the cease-fire agreement and the peace process," European monitors warned after the suicide bombing.
Neither government officials nor the rebels spoke about the state of the truce, but tensions have been worsening along with violence that has killed at least 89 people, including 43 soldiers or police, just this month.
The rebels accuse the Sinhalese-dominated government of discriminating against minority Tamils and want a separate homeland on the island, which lies off India's southern tip. Before the 2002 truce stopped large-scale fighting, more than 65,000 people died in two decades of war.
Last week, the rebels backed out of peace talks that had been scheduled to start Monday in Geneva, citing attacks on Tamil civilians and other disputes with the government.
Action planned
The United States condemned the bombing and said it was organizing a pressure campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
It was "regrettable the Tamil Tigers decided to restart the war instead of restarting the peace process," Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in Washington. He said the State Department will "bring to bear whatever pressure we can on the Tamil Tigers to abandon this course of action."
No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack on Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, but the rebels have a history of using suicide bombers.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, whose government blamed the bombing on the Tamil Tiger rebels, took a defiant stance in a televised address Tuesday night.
"I can't be scared by any mode of terrorism," Rajapakse said. "Similarly, my government can't be brought to its knees by any kind of challenge."
The bomber reportedly pretended to be pregnant to conceal the explosives used to strike at Fonseka inside the military headquarters in Colombo, the capital.
She entered the grounds by presenting fake identification and saying she had an appointment for a checkup at the army hospital inside the complex, said military officials, who insisted on speaking anonymously because of regulations.
Once inside, she triggered an explosion near a car carrying Fonseka. The bomber died instantly, but it was not clear if she was included in the government's figure of eight dead.
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