A bomb strapped to a bicycle killed a police officer and a civilian when it exploded Wednesday outside a police station in eastern Sri Lanka, authorities said, according to AP. The attack, which was blamed on ethnic Tamil rebels, came as the military pushed ahead with an offensive in the north aimed at defeating the insurgents and ending the country's 25-year-old civil war. The rigged bicycle was left near a gas station outside a police post in the eastern city of Batticaloa, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. It exploded about 7:30 a.m. as a group of schoolchildren walked by, he said. In addition to the two people killed, the blast injured one police officer, four children and six others, Nanayakkara said. The rebels were suspected of orchestrating the attack, he said.
