(Revises death toll, add quotes) By Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO, Feb 29 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast shook a building near the port in the Sri Lankan capital early on Friday, killing the bomber and wounding seven people, the military said. Bomb squad officials at the scene described how the blast had strewn body parts inside a house in the Modhara quarter of the city, near the harbour that sits north of Colombo's financial district. Officials initially reported two people were killed. The explosion occurred during a search and cordon operation by police aimed at flushing out Tamil Tiger rebels seeking to mount attacks in the capital. "They were searching houses in that area and had gone into a house and wanted them to open a door. Then the suicide bomber came out and exploded himself," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. Hospital officials said the seven wounded included three policemen and four civilians, one of them in a serious condition. The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are seeking to carve out an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, were not immediately available for comment. The Tigers are blamed for a series of bombings in and around the capital in recent months, and are known for using suicide fighters in a war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people since 1983. Analysts say the government has the upper hand in a new phase of the 25-year civil war given strength of numbers, increased air power and terrain captured in the east. But they caution the Tigers still retain their strike capability and should not be written off. Nanayakkara said troops killed 14 Tigers in a clash in the northwestern district of Mannar on Thursday which takes the military's reported rebel death toll for the week to around 60. Since the start of 2006, more than 6,500 rebels, 1,200 military personnel and over 980 civilians have been killed, according to the military. Analysts say toll claims by both sides are almost certainly inflated. With Nordic truce monitors banished from the island after the government formally scrapped a 6-year truce in January, there are seldom independent accounts confirming what has happened on the battlefield or behind rebel lines. The resumption of war has hurt the economy, denting tourist arrivals last year, which fell 12 percent compared to 2006. The stock market slid nearly 7 percent in 2007, with some businesses shelving investment plans. (Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots are pictured at the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim-dominated housing project, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad February 16, 2008. Muslim survivors of one of ...
