Sri Lankan women condemn rebels' use of women as suicide bombers:

(May 23, 2006) In Sri Lanka, about 100 women protested in Colombo on Monday against the use of female suicide bombers by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. “We condemn the use of women, especially pregnant women,” said Dulcy de Silva, a spokeswoman for Sri Lanka's All Party Women's Congress. Last month, a female suicide bomber attempted to assassinate the country's top military general by using the fact that she appeared pregnant to avoid security checks at the capital's military headquarters. Investigators have not yet determined whether the woman was actually pregnant, but reports that she deliberately became pregnant to infiltrate the compound have circulated widely in Sri Lanka. At least 13 people, including the bomber, were killed in the attack, but the target, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, escaped with serious injuries. The rebels, formally named the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, began fighting the government in 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils. The Tiger suicide unit, known as the Black Tigers, has carried out some 75 suicide attacks, with an estimated one third by women.