Sri Lankan military discover explosive-laden jackets

Colombo: Suicide bomber jackets have been discovered in an abandoned house in Sri Lanka, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said that besides the jackets, the military also found two rocket propelled grenades and two T-56 automatic weapons and ammunition during the search in the northern Jaffna peninsula late on Wednesday.

"We got a tip-off and found the explosives which were to be used against us," Samarasinghe said, blaming Tamil Tiger rebels for hiding the explosives.

The Tiger rebels are fighting for a separate homeland for the country's 3.1 million ethnic Tamil minority. The government says it is willing to give autonomy to areas where Tamils are in the majority, but rebels insist on sweeping changes that the government says will infringe on the country's sovereignty.
Sri Lanka's open civil war stopped in 2002 after Norway brokered a truce, but since a spike in violence this year the agreement now only exists on paper, with more than 3,500 fighters and civilians killed in assassinations, mine blasts, suicide attacks, artillery exchanges, sea battles and air strikes, according to government figures.