Suicide bomber kills 5 in Sri Lanka capital

Colombo: A suicide bomber struck a civil defence force post in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Sunday, killing at least five people, the military said. "A suicide cadre has gone inside a civil defence force post in Wattala and exploded himself.

Due to the explosion five civil defence force people were killed and four others injured," said military spokesman brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. No further details were immediately available.

The attack comes at a time of intense fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels around the self-proclaimed rebel capital of Kilinochchi in the north.

Sri Lanka's military has been closing in on Kilinochchi since September, but in the past two weeks has been assaulting heavy defences encircling the town's outskirts. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam started fighting the government in 1983.

It says it is battling for the rights of minority Tamils in the face of mistreatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since Sri Lanka won independence from Britain in 1948.

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