A home-made bomb exploded outside a Sri Lankan hotel on Wednesday, injuring three people, but it did not appear to be a rebel attack, police said. Bomb disposal experts outside the hotel in the capital Colombo said an explosive device made from something like a mine exploded in a jeep, badly damaging one side of the vehicle and blowing out the windows. "There was an improvised explosive device inside the jeep," one bomb squad officer said, asking not to be named. A Reuters witness saw blood smattered across the windscreen and the axle lying on the floor. The windows of a nearby restaurant had been blown out. "I am going to speak to the injured in hospital and then determine whether it was a terrorist attack or organised crime," Gamini Seneviratne, senior superintendent of police for southern Colombo, told Reuters. "Looking at the scene, it is highly unlikely this is a rebel attack," he said. It was the first such incident to hit Colombo since a 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the government. The rebels traditionally used trucks packed full of explosives, and not improvised devices. The government and rebels are close to agreeing a deal to share tsunami aid to rebuild ravaged coastal communities, and diplomats say neither side wants to return to war.
