Independence Day Bomb Kills 12 Sri Lankans

Sri Lanka celebrated its 60th independence anniversary Monday with parades, speeches and a security clampdown that failed to prevent suspected rebels from bombing a civilian bus, killing 12 people, the military said.

In an attempt to block such attacks in the capital, troops sealed off many roads and a major cell phone operator shut off its text messaging service throughout the morning as officials and residents gathered for the national ceremony.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa railed in a televised speech against the Tamil Tiger rebels and said the current economic and security difficulties would be over soon. He reiterated the government's vow to crush the rebels after decades of warfare, despite an escalation of the civil war in recent months.

"Our defense forces have achieved victories that were never before seen. Terrorism is facing a defeat that it has never before faced," he said. Top government officials have said they hope to rout the rebels by the end of the year.

Thousands of troops, local dancers and religious leaders paraded along Colombo's coastal road in the independence celebration.

Hours later, a roadside bomb blast tore through a civilian bus in the Welioya region, about 150 miles northeast of Colombo, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. The attack killed 12 people and injured 17 others, he said, blaming the rebels.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment. The Tamil Tigers, listed as a terror group by the United States and European Union, routinely deny responsibility for such attacks.

Another roadside bombing in the southeastern town of Buttala killed one soldier and injured two others, the military said.

The blasts came amid a wave of bombings targeting civilians across the country. On Sunday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up inside Colombo's main railway station, killing 11 people and wounding 92 others. A day earlier, a bomb on a bus killed 18 people, mostly Buddhist pilgrims, in the central town of Dambulla.

The independence celebration began with a 21-gun salute and a parade by hundreds of army, navy, air force and police officials, along with tanks, artillery guns and multiple rocket launchers.

Twelve naval gunships and fast-attack craft sailed off the coast, while 26 fighter jets and attack helicopters flew overhead.

The U.S. Embassy advised American citizens to avoid unnecessary travel in the capital region during the holiday, warning of possible attacks. The government also closed schools in Colombo for the week because of the security situation, Education Ministry official Nimal Bandara said.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by Sinhalese-dominated governments. More than 70,000 people have died.

A 2002 cease-fire ushered in several years of calm and fostered hopes that peace would prevail, but the truce broke down as renewed attacks over the past two years killed 5,000 people.

The government ousted the guerrillas from their strongholds in the east last year, and daily fighting rages along the front lines in the jungles of the north, where the rebels still control a de facto state.

A string of battles in the north Sunday killed 36 rebels and one soldier, the military reported Monday. The rebels were not available for comment, but the two sides routinely give widely differing death tolls.

The government blames the rebels for the recent attacks on civilian targets inside government-held territory, which continue despite a maze of checkpoints throughout the country.

The government officially pulled out of the cease-fire last month and forced independent Nordic monitors to leave the country.

Many had high hopes for the nation, formerly known as Ceylon, when it achieved independence from Britain in 1948, months after South Asian neighbors India and Pakistan became independent.

But the civil war undermined the country's potential to become a regional economic power, said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank.

"The development potential was huge, and it has been totally stymied by this war," he said.

Post-independence governments lacked the foresight to develop a national identity that would include all ethnic groups, Saravanamuttu said.

Tensions between the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority, who comprise about 74 percent of the nation's 20 million people, and the mainly Hindu Tamil community, who make up about 18 percent, quickly surfaced after independence.

Sinhalese-dominated governments, fearing local Tamils would work with Tamils in neighboring India to take over the nation, tried to marginalize the Tamil language and culture. At least two efforts to broker a compromise were retracted by the government amid protests by Sinhalese nationalists.

The tensions eventually erupted into violence, with Sinhalese mobs targeting Tamils and Tamil guerrilla groups launching attacks on government targets.