New security measures will be implemented across Sri Lanka after a suicide bombing killed 14 people and critically wounded a Cabinet minister, the government said Wednesday. Media Minister Anura Yapa said the attack in the southern town of Akuressa, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Colombo, showed that even regions far from the civil war raging in the north are vulnerable to terror attacks. “No one believed that this kind of attack could take place in a remote area like Akuressa,” he said. “Definitely, police will implement new security measures to prevent these kinds of attacks.” He did not elaborate on what the new security measures would entail, saying that senior police officials would decide. The suicide bomber targeted six Cabinet ministers as they led a religious procession Tuesday morning. The blast, blamed on Tamil Tiger separatist rebels, came as government forces battled for the last rebel stronghold in the north and appeared poised to defeat the group after more than 25 years of civil war. The attack killed 13 people and badly wounded Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mahinda Wijesekara, who remained in serious condition Wednesday, according to Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, director of Colombo National Hospital. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast. An attack by the Tigers would highlight their capability to strike far from their traditional strongholds in the north and east even as they face battlefield defeat. Meanwhile, fighting surged in the northern war zone, with the rebels and troops locked in heavy battles in Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last town under rebel control, the military said Wednesday. Human rights and aid groups have voiced concern over tens of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians trapped in the shrinking sliver of land still under rebel control. Heavy artillery attacks Tuesday killed at least 49 civilians and wounded hundreds, according to the top government health official in the war zone. Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said 378 civilians from rebel-held villages fled to government-controlled territory Tuesday. The number of people who have fled rebel territory this year is now nearly 39,000, he said. The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent state for the Tamil minority, which suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed.
