Sri Lanka: Bombing draws EU condemnation

Brussels, 6 Oct. (AKI) - European Union external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner on Monday deplored the suicide bombing in northern Sri Lanka which killed 27 people and injured over 80."I am deeply shocked by the suicide attack at the United National Party office in Anuradhapura this morning. "I condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling act of terrorism which cannot be justified under any circumstances," said Ferrero-Waldner.A popular retired army general, Major-General Janaka Perera, was among those killed by Monday's deadly blast in Anuradhapura, some 200 kilometres north of the capital Colombo.Perera was the main opposition United National Party's provincial leader and was attending the opening ceremony of its new offices in the ancient tourist town.The Sri Lankan government and army blamed the attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who for decades have waged a war to create a separate homeland for the country's Tamil minority.The attack came as the Sri Lankan military continues to close in on the Tamil Tigers' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi. Fighting on Sunday killed 17 rebels and wounded 30, while one soldier was killed and eight were wounded, the military said. And on Monday, air force jets bombed a strategic Tiger Tamil artillery position on the northwestern coast, the air force said.About 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in the mid-1970s.