(For related story click on [nCOL17637] or see SRILANKA/BLAST)

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Suspected Tamil Tigers bombed a bus in central Sri Lanka on Wednesday killing 24 people, the military said, as a 6-year ceasefire between the state and rebels formally ended.

Here is a chronology of major attacks blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for an independent state since 1983:

April 1987 - Car bomb explodes at Colombo central bus station, killing 113 people and wounding scores.

April 1989 - Car bomb explodes in the eastern port of Trincomalee, killing 51 people shopping for traditional new year.

March 1991: Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne is among 19 killed when a car bomb is detonated in Colombo.

May 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is killed in southern India by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber.

Aug. 1992 - The army chief, Lieutenant-General Denzil Kobbekaduwa, is killed in a landmine blast in Kayts, in northern Sri Lanka.

November 1992 - Navy chief Clancey Fernando is killed in a suicide bombing in Colombo.

May 1993 - President Ranasinghe Premadasa and 23 others are killed by a suicide bomber in Colombo.

Oct. 1994 - Presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake is one of 52 killed in a bomb blast at a Colombo election rally.

Jan. 1996 - A truck filled with explosives rams into the Central Bank building in Colombo, killing up to 100 people and wounding 1,400.

July 1996 - Two bomb blasts on a rush-hour commuter train kill 57 people and wound more than 250.

Dec. 1999 - President Chandrika Kumaratunga is wounded in an attempted assassination by a suicide bomber; at least 34 are killed in two explosions. She lost an eye.

June 2000 - Industrial Development Minister C.V. Gunaratne and 21 others are killed in a suicide bomb blast in Colombo. July 2001 - An attack on the country's main air base and only international airport kills at least 12 people and destroys 13 aircraft.

Aug. 2005 - Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is shot dead at his home in Colombo.

April 2006 - Army Commander Major General Sarath Fonseka is badly hurt in an abortive suicide attack on Army HQ in Colombo.

May 2006 - Kethesh Loganathan, deputy head of the government's peace secretariat, is shot dead by a suspected Tiger gunman at his Colombo home.

June 2006 - Army Deputy Chief of Staff Parami Kulatunga killed as suicide bomber rams a motorcycle laden with explosives into his vehicle outside Colombo.

June 2006 - A mine attack on a civilian bus in the central district of Anuradapura kills 64.

Oct. 2006 - Nearly 100 people, mostly navy sailors, are killed in a suicide bombing on a convoy near the town of Habarana, northeast of Colombo.

Dec. 2006 - Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, narrowly escapes a suspected Tiger bomb attack on his convoy in central Colombo.

April 2, 2007 - A bomb blast hits a civilian bus in the eastern district of Ampara, killing 16 people, mostly women and children, during a Buddhist holiday.

Nov. 28, 2007 - Suspected Tamil Tigers kill 18 people in two bomb attacks in the capital Colombo.

Dec. 5, 2007 - Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels kill 16 people in an attack on a crowded civilian bus, 45 km (28 miles) from the town of Anuradhapura.

Jan. 1, 2008 - Main opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian T. Maheshweran is shot dead at a Hindu temple in Colombo. Government blames the rebels, but the opposition blames the government.

Jan. 8, 2008 - Nation Building Minister D.M. Dassanayake is killed by a roadside bomb planted by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in the town of Ja-Ela, 12 miles (19 km) north of Colombo.

Jan. 16, 2008 - Suspected Tiger rebels bomb a civilian bus in the central district of Moneragala, killing 24 people and wounding dozens on the day a 2002 ceasefire formally expires.

Source: Reuters (Writing by Nagesh Narayana, Editing by Simon Gardner)

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