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COLOMBO-Sri Lanka braced for more violence as suspected Tamil rebels set off bomb attacks in the capital on the eve of celebrations to mark independence day, officials said Sunday.Tamil Tiger rebels struck in the heart of Colombo, with a suicide bomber killing 11 passengers and wounding more than 100 at the main railway station despite a security dragnet ahead of freedom celebrations Monday, police said.Hours earlier, six people were wounded in a hand grenade attack at a zoo on the city's outskirts."It is clear that the Tigers want the country to be in mourning on independence day,"a senior police officer said."They are trying to ease the military pressure on them by going for soft targets."The United States condemned the attacks and said the violence appeared to be aimed at fostering "an atmosphere of fear prior to Sri Lanka's Independence Day celebrations."Police had stepped up a search for possible suicide bombers following the discovery at the weekend of seven explosives-filled suicide jackets usually worn by Tiger rebels.Sri Lanka marks the 60th anniversary of independence from Britain with its security forces locked in combat with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north of the island where the rebels maintain a mini state.The escalation of fighting has also led to growing international concern over the island's human rights record.Cuts in aid by Britain and the US have already been announced while the island's main donor, Japan, last week warned it may review its policy of financially helping Sri Lanka unless violence subsided. Freedom Day events in heavily-guarded Colombo will be held despite mourning for victims of Sunday's station bombing as well as the 20 passengers killed in a bus bomb Saturday in north-central Sri Lanka, the authorities said."Cultural and sporting events will also be held in addition to the main event in Colombo," Karu Jayasuriya, the chief organiser of the celebrations, told AFP.President Mahinda Rajapakse blamed separatist Tamil Tiger rebels for the bus attack and called for calm.Rajapakse's government is preparing to put its military might on display at a seafront promenade in Colombo including tanks and multi-barrel rocket launchers-the most effective weapon against the Tigers-and aircraft.Monday's celebrations are the first major national event since Colombo formally ended the Norwegian-arranged 2002 truce and vowed to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militarily.Fighting between troops and the LTTE around the rebel-held Wanni region in the north and the rest of the island left nearly 1,000 people dead last month alone, according to defence ministry figures.Police spokesman N. K. Illangakoon defended holding the celebrations despite fears of more rebel attacks in Colombo, a city of 650,000 people."We can't allow terrorists to disrupt our Independence Day celebrations," Illangakoon said. "We are providing maximum security."Sri Lanka's government believes it has the upper hand against the Tamil rebels and has ruled out any negotiations until winning a militarily victory by re-capturing northern territories controlled by the LTTE. "We will hit if we are hit," Rajapakse told reporters at his last press conference two weeks ago. "Terrorism must be defeated. There are no good terrorists and bad terrorists."Sri Lanka had vowed to defeat the LTTE by the middle of this year, but in the course of the three-decade-long conflict there had been similar pledges which ended in more bloodshed.Sri Lanka has remained in ethnic turmoil for more than half the period since independence and more than 60,000 people have been killed in the separatist struggle which has emerged as Asia's longest ethnic conflict.As in the days of Noah....
