COLOMBO (AFP) - A suspected female suicide bomber has set off a powerful blast inside a bus in southern Sri Lanka, killing 15 passengers and wounding 40 in the second bus attack in two days.
Suspicion pointed to a woman suicide bomber who is believed to have detonated explosives she carried onboard the crowded vehicle, police said Saturday.
"We suspect it was a suicide bombing," police inspector Upul Ariyaratne said from his regional headquarters at Ambalangoda, 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of Colombo, close to where the bus was blown up.
"We have taken 15 bodies to hospital and another 40 were admitted to two hospitals."
The attack followed a bus blast late Friday when six passengers were killed and another 70 wounded near Colombo.
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Saturday's attack came in the same district where Sri Lanka's aid donors are due to meet later this month.
The United States, Japan, the European Union and Norway have tied 4.5 billion dollars of aid to Sri Lanka to progress on a peace settlement.
The new violence came after both President Mahinda Rajapakse and the LTTE wished for peace in their New Year messages.
"We hope the New Year will bring the long awaited genuine and sustainable peace," Rajapakse said, while the Tigers called for global backing for their "sincere effort to seek a permanent peace through a just political solution".
Good luck with that.
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