A bomb explosion in the Sri Lankan capital city, Colombo, led to the killing of at least four people and the injuring of more than 20. The attack came just 24 hours after an important Tamil lawmaker was shot to death, so the prime suspects are the Tamil Tigers fighters.

According to official reports, the target of the bomb attack was an army bus carrying wounded soldiers to a hospital. The bomb went off Wednesday morning in a busy commercial district of Colombo.

At least one soldier was killed as the bomb hit the buss and three other civilians who were passing by also died.

Udaya Nanayakkaram, spokesperson for the Sri Lankan military, said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are responsible.

"The LTTE, due to the desperation and due to the pressure applied to them in the north, they are trying to resort to this kind of terrorist activities in Colombo," he said.

T. Maheswaran, the above mentioned lawyer, was shot dead as he attended a New Year service in a Hindu temple in Colombo.

On the other hand, Maheswaran’s party blamed the government as well for the lawyer’s death. As Maheswaran was very critical with the government's military campaign against the Tamil rebels, the government lowered his security protection on the day the gunman hit. 

The latest attacks in Colombo occurred as fighting intensifies between the government backed troops and the rebels. Political assassinations through means of abductions and bomb attacks have increased over the past two years and, with the Sri Lanka's armed forces commanders declaring on New Year's Eve that they would crush the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2008, the future doesn’t so very bright for the inhabitants of the small island south of India.