Sri Lanka the Terror Strikes Home

The workday was just an hour old. Nearly 200 employees in the red-tiled colonial building that houses Colombo's central telegraph offices were busy at their posts. Customers had begun to queue up to pay bills, make calls at the public phone booths and send telegrams. Suddenly the morning routine was shattered by an explosion that echoed throughout the downtown area of the capital. Two floors of the three-story structure collapsed. As rescue workers sifted through the wreckage for survivors, police commandeered cars to transport the wounded to hospitals. Twelve people died and more than 100 were injured in the bombing.

The...