Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels crashed a truck loaded with explosives into a Sri Lankan naval convoy today and killed at least 92 people.
The attack near the town of Habarana, about 190 kilometres northeast of the capital Colombo, was one of the worst suicide bombings in the troubled Indian Ocean island.
Buddhist monks look at the wreckage of navy vehicles at Habarana, about 190 km northeast of Colombo
It came at the start of a week of international diplomacy aimed at ending a rash of fighting between the military and the rebels ahead of planned peace talks in Geneva on October 28th-29th.
The navy gathers its men at a transit camp near Habarana before transporting them to the eastern naval base of Trincomalee.
"There were about 15 buses and 13 were damaged in the explosion," a navy officer in Colombo said.
The convoy had stopped near the town and many sailors had stepped out of their buses when the truck rammed into the vehicles, officers said.
"The sailors were in civilian clothes and were not carrying weapons because they were either going on leave or reporting back after vacations," a spokesman said. He said the death toll could go up.
"When the LTTE simply can't fight the navy at sea they resort to these types of attacks," he added.
A senior government minister condemned the incident, calling it a "barbaric terrorist attack on unarmed soldiers".