Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a roadside blast near an air force base just outside Sri Lanka's capital Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding 39, police and doctors said.
The evening rush hour explosion was along the main Galle Road at Ratmalana where the air force maintains its transport aircraft fleet, police said, adding that the bomb targeted a truck carrying police Special Task Force commandos.
"Seven commandos were taken to hospital," a police officer said by telephone. "We think the bomb was planted on an upper floor store facing Galle Road."
Doctors at the Colombo South hospital said 34 people were being treated there while five more were in two neighbouring hospitals. A total of seven civilians were killed, doctors said.
Among those wounded were seven commandos whose truck was hit by the powerful mine which was also packed with ball bearings which acted as pellets and caused injuries. There were no foreigners among the casualties.
President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the bombing and expressed his sympathies to the bereaved families. Media Minister Anura Yapa said the blast was the work of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"They have targeted civilians out of desperation," Yapa said adding that the guerrillas were under military pressure in the north and the east of the island where they are demanding a separate state.
There was no immediate word from the Tigers, who are fighting for an independent homelands for minority Tamils. The conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives since the birth of the Tigers in 1972.
Several private vehicles were also hit by the blast. Police cordoned off the area as forensic experts began combing the site for clues.
"It looks like a 'Claymore mine' was placed on the roof of a roadside shop and detonated with a remote-controlled device as the truck passed," a police officer at the scene said.
The owner of the shop was complaining to police that the premises had been broken into when the blast ripped through, the officer said.
He said the police truck was headed towards Colombo from a training facility at Katukurunda, further south of Ratmalana. There were nine commandos in the vehicle at the time of the bombing.
The Ratmalana military air base is used by police and security forces to travel to the island's northern peninsula of Jaffna.
Hundreds of troops daily pass through the suburban area just 15 kilometres (10 miles) south of the city centre.
The blast came four days after a mine attack on an army bus in the heart of the capital, which killed one soldier and wounded six others. That attack too was blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels.
A similar roadside blast killed three civilians as they returned in a light truck after making a delivery to an STF camp at Thirukkovil in the eastern district of Ampara on Sunday evening.
The latest wave of bombings came as analysts said they expected more violence in the Tamil separatist conflict in the coming weeks.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in a new wave of fighting since December 2005 despite a truce in place since February 2002.
