A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew up a bus in Sri Lanka's south coast resort area today, killing herself and eight passengers and wounding 50, police said, in the second attack on a bus in as many days.
The blast in the coastal town of Peraliya, around 45 miles (70 km) south of Colombo -- where around 1,000 people were killed when their train was swept off its tracks by the 2004 tsunami -- comes after suspected rebels killed six civilians in a bus blast north of the capital yesterday.
Analysts fear rebel attacks, which have largely been confined to military and political targets during a new episode in the island's two-decade civil war, may now increasingly target civilians as in earlier stages of a conflict that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983.
"We think it was a Tiger suicide bomber," Chief Inspector of Police H.M. Edrisuriya said. "We have found only a portion of an unidentified woman, who we think was the bomber."
The attack came hours after four soldiers and a civilian were killed in a clutch of blasts in the island's restive north, and as police questioned 18 people over yesterday's bus bombing 36 km (20 miles) outside Colombo.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment on the blasts, but routinely deny involvement in bombings and ambushes.
"The fact that they have now started targeting (civilians) is a cause for concern," said Iqbal Athas, an analyst for Jane's Defence Weekly. "One cannot rule out more attacks on civilians."
More than 3,000 troops, civilians and rebel fighters were killed in a spree of ambushes, suicide bombings, air raids, naval clashes and land battles last year despite a 2002 ceasefire which now exists only on paper.
"Every government has given promises of finishing the war, but they are only promises and a dream for us. We are suffering," said 22-year-old R. Rasika, who survived Friday's attack, but is still unable to hear or see properly.
"People in the north are suffering and being killed too," added the architecture student. "The government needs to find a peaceful solution. This country is not just for (majority) Sinhalese people. I think we need to find a practical power sharing