COLOMBO: As Sri Lanka returned to full scale war after the government formally withdrew from the ceasefire with the LTTE a week ago, military officials confirmed that the second bomb to explode on Tuesday in Colombo was targeted at Sri Lanka’s Air Force chief, Air Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke.

Around nine hours after the Minister of Nation Building, D M Dassanayake was killed in a remote controlled claymore mine blast, the Air Force chief narrowly escaped a parcel bomb which exploded on Tuesday night, about three minutes after his vehicle passed the location, investigators said.

Fitted with a timer, the bomb which had been placed inside a phone booth in Colombo Fort had gone off at 7.50 pm when there was virtually no traffic on the road, police said.

Being a high security zone with the presidential palace, the port and major commercial establishments in it, the Fort area was further submerged in tight security after the blast.

The government unreservedly blamed the LTTE rebels for both blasts.

Meanwhile, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nannayakkara on Wednesday said large swathes of rebel held territory has been captured in northern Mannar where heavy fighting is taking place. At least thirty LTTE rebels are believed to be dead in the fighting so far, according to reports.

The military has acknowledged the death of only one soldier.

However, the LTTE in a statement on the pro rebel website Tamil Net claimed that fourteen soldiers were killed in the fighting. The rebels have acknowledged that there were casualties on their side but did not specify numbers.

A civilian source in Mannar contacted on mobile phone described the bombing as ‘unbearable’.

“This is the worst fighting in months. Whole of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning we could hear the sound of bombing. It is unbearable. Small children are bleeding from their ears in reaction to the thunderous sounds and expecting mothers are desperately trying to flee to safer areas. It is hell here..,” forty year old Jeevapushpam who lives in the northern Mannar district said when contacted.

Jeevapushpam who fled her southern hometown of Awissawella during the ethnic riots targeting Tamils in 1983, had lost her husband ten years ago to a landmine in the north.

Now her deepest fear is that the same fate will befall her twenty year old son.

Analysts say the twenty five year old ethnic conflict is likely to spiral to its deadliest limit this year, with the game plan of the LTTE being to cause as much death, damage and mayhem in the South.

Meanwhile a notable development following the scrapping of the ceasefire was the resignation of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s top advisor on the peace process, Jayantha Dhanapala, a diplomat and former candidate for the post of UN Secretary General.Dhanapala, who had also served as head of the Government Peace Secretariat, was not available for comment but sources close to him said he was embarrassed by the government’s move to terminate the truce.

Meanwhile, amidst heightened security checks aimed at preventing terrorist activities, rights groups have warned against harassment and arrests of Tamil civilians.

In a mass scale search operation carried out in Colombo in the past week nearly two hundred persons were arrested on suspicion, senior police sources said. The suspects are being questioned to find out if they are hardcore LTTE activists, according to police officials.

As Sri Lanka plunges further into uncertainty, top political sources on Wednesday revealed that President Mahinda Rajapakse intends to ban the LTTE shortly, a move which would further erode even the remotest chance of resuming peace.

“No, it’s difficult to muster up any hope anymore… All chances of peace are truly dead. Any assurance by the government of offering a political solution to Tamils seems to be merely rhetoric,” said a humanitarian worker affiliated to a non governmental organisation working with the war affected.

On Monday, a former LTTE rebel turned pro government politician addressing a press briefing said no peace could be possible as long as the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakaran was alive.

Social Service and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda told reporters that the LTTE would never agree to a peaceful settlement of the current conflict adding that the Tamil Tigers always used peace talks to re-group and strengthen its power.