Powerful explosions rocked an important southern tourist and port town in Sri Lanka for the first time on Wednesday, apparently extending the war in this country to a stronghold of the Sinhalese ethnic majority.
The government said suicide boats of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, disguised as fishing boats, had been detonated near a navy base.
While the death toll was low — one sailor and 15 rebels — the attack was significant because the recent surge in fighting between the government and the rebels had largely been concentrated in the Tamil-dominated north and the east.
“The L.T.T.E. wanted to create some kind of backlash in this very sensitive Sinhalese-majority area,” said the Defense Ministry spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella. “Their other motive may have been to hit economic and commercial interests by targeting this popular tourist destination. They failed miserably.”
The coastal town of Galle, about 70 miles south of the capital, Colombo, was hit hard by the Asian tsunami in December 2004 but until now was unscathed by the civil war between Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese-dominated government and the Tigers, who are fighting to establish a separate homeland for the Tamil minority.
“The hotel shook, due to the repeated explosions,” said Hiran Cooray, director of the Lighthouse Hotel, the biggest in Galle and an architectural landmark.
The attack was quickly followed by sporadic violence, with angry mobs attacking Tamil-owned stores in the town and smashing windows.
The Tigers did not comment on the attack, but they were quick to blame the government for subsequent airstrikes on eastern rebel strongholds, in which they said a civilian had been injured. The military denied aiming at civilians.
The attack in Galle took place two days after a suicide bomber rammed a truck into a navy convoy about 100 miles northeast of the capital, killing nearly 100 people, mostly sailors.
The two sides are to resume peace talks on Oct. 28 in Geneva, but there is little optimism.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
