Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels will likely escalate into the bloodiest period of fighting between the foes the island has seen after the government scrapped a tattered truce, experts say.
Sri Lanka plunged back into war after four years of relative peace almost as soon as President Mahinda Rajapaksa took power in late 2005, but both he and the Tigers held off scrapping a Norwegian-brokered truce to avoid appearing the villain.
With the pact formally ended, the gloves are off and any hopes of resurrecting collapsed peace talks any time soon are dead and investment in the $26 billion (13 billion pound) economy could suffer.
"This means all out war," said Iqbal Athas, an analyst with Jane's Defence Weekly in Colombo. "The government has dropped the peace option and has opted for a fuller military onslaught on the rebels."
"One thing is certain, there'll be more confrontations. There'll be more violence now," he added. "The government perceives it to be end-game ... It will be the most intense period of war Sri Lanka has seen."
Wednesday's announcement came hours after suspected Tiger rebels bombed a military bus in central Colombo, killing four people and wounding 24. It was the latest in a litany of attacks that have killed hundreds in recent months.
More than 5,000 people have been killed since early 2006, taking the death toll since the war erupted in 1983 to around 70,000.
The government said the cabinet decided to scrap the Norwegian-brokered 2002 ceasefire because the Tigers were using it as cover to regroup and rearm and had violated the terms of the pact thousands of times.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are fighting for an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, had no immediate comment.
