COLOMBO, Feb 9: A woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed 28 people on Monday at a camp for civilians displaced by the fighting, the military said.

The woman detonated her explosives as she was being searched by women soldiers outside the camp near Visuamadu, an area recently captured from the rebels, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. “Twenty soldiers, including three women, were killed,” he said.

“Eight civilians were killed and 40 of them were wounded.” Dozens of troops injured.

Brig Nanayakkara blamed the attack on Tamil Tiger rebels, whose decades-long armed campaign for an independent homeland has recently suffered huge territorial losses as a result of a major army offensive.

“This attack is aimed at slowing down the army’s advance,” Brig Nanayakkara told reporters here. He added that the Tigers were trying to discourage civilians from crossing over to government-held areas.

The United Nations and the US government condemned the attack.

“Those killed had already been forced from their homes by fighting, and had endured terrible hardships,” the UN said in a statement. “The UN reiterates that civilians must be distinguished from combatants, and protected from the fighting.

“It calls once again on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to separate its forces from civilians under its control.”

The US embassy here said in a statement that it saw the bombing as an “apparent effort by the LTTE to discourage Tamils from leaving the conflict area”.

“The United States calls on the LTTE to allow all civilians freedom of movement,” it said.

It also urged Colombo to ensure that all internally displaced people who leave the conflict area are registered and transferred in a “transparent manner to temporary camps in accordance with international standards”.

The comment was a reference to allegations from rights groups that those who enter government-controlled areas are held in prison-like conditions, a charge denied by authorities.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met heads of UN agencies in Colombo to discuss protecting civilians amid reports that the Tigers were also using child suicide bombers against troops, the ministry said.

“It was also observed that inaccurate accounts of the situation should be avoided at all costs and the UN will continue to assist the government to ensure the welfare of civilians in the conflict zone in terms of their rescue, resettlement and rehabilitation,” the ministry said.

The government had been at loggerheads with international agencies over the number of civilians trapped by the conflict as well as accounts of civilian casualties.

Colombo says the number of civilians trapped by the conflict is now less than 100,000. UN agencies have placed it at 250,000.

With government forces pressing forward, the military said the area under rebel control had shrunk to less than 100 square kilometres.

Amid the ongoing fighting, the BBC announced in London on Monday that it was suspending its FM programming to Sri Lanka’s national broadcaster because of what it claimed was “deliberate interference”. –AFP