LTTE trying to spark 'backlash', says Rajapaksa

Terming Saturday's bomb attack on a bus that killed 18 people as an act of "desperation" by the LTTE, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa accused the Tamil rebels of trying to trigger a "backlash" from the majority Sinhalese to obtain sympathy of the international community.

"I vehemently and unequivocally condemn this latest act of savagery by the LTTE in carrying out the blast in a civilian bus at Dambulla today," Rajapaksa said in a statement.

A parcel bomb planted by suspected LTTE rebels ripped through a bus packed with Buddhist pilgrims in the central town, killing 18 passengers, mostly women, and injuring 51 others, just two days before the strife-torn country celebrates its Independence Day.

Many of those killed and injured were pilgrims going to the North-Central city of Anuradhapura to participate in a Buddhist ceremony, Rajapaksa said.

He described the attack as a "repeated brutality by the LTTE which in its desperation in the face of defeats inflicted on them by the security forces, is eager to create a backlash to their terror, to obtain the sympathy of the international community".

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