Sri Lanka arrests nine over bomb, blamed on Tigers

Sri Lanka arrested nine people yesterday over a suspected rebel Tamil Tiger bomb that claimed 26 lives on a packed bus in the capital, police said.

The blast in a residential suburb in the Friday evening rush hour follows a bloody week in Sri Lanka, where government forces and Tiger rebels, known as the LTTE, are locked in a violent new chapter of a 25-year civil war.

"This was the latest in a series of indiscriminate attacks by the LTTE aimed at civilians," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a statement, adding that the rebels had "many setbacks in battle with the Sri Lankan armed forces in recent weeks".

The president urged greater public vigilance.

"Police have taken nine people into custody for questioning," a police spokesman said. He said the death toll now stood at 26 people including a child and a priest, with more than 60 wounded. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are fighting for an independent state in the north and east where their ethnic minority lives.

The rebels were not immediately available for comment but routinely deny responsibility for such attacks on civilians. Dozens of rebel fighters and government troops were killed this week in fighting on the Jaffna Peninsula in the far north.