Six dead in suicide attack on Sri Lanka army HQ -army

COLOMBO, April 25 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew herself up inside Sri Lanka's army headquarters on Tuesday and at least six people were dead at the scene, an army spokesman said.

The blast seriously wounded the army commander and called into question a ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"A suicide bomb went off near the army hospital aimed at the army commander's vehicle," an army spokesman said.

Sri Lanka's north and east have been rocked by claymore fragmentation mine attacks and ethnic riots this month as a peace process between the government and Tigers remains deadlocked, but the attack on the capital took the violence to a new level.

The Colombo All-Share Index fell more than 3.2 percent after the blast, to 2,216.74.

Pushpa Soysa, the head nurse at Colombo General Hospital where the casualties were taken, said Army Commander Sarath Fonseka was being operated on and was in critical condition.

Witnesses said the roads around army headquarters -- in the central Colombo and across from a popular sea-front park -- had been sealed off and several civilian ambulances were outside the heavily guarded compound.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels, who have been observing a shaky ceasefire with the government since 2002, have used suicide bombers in their fight for a homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east.