Suicide blast kills Sri Lanka minister

A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka's Highways Minister and at least 13 other people attending a marathon race near the capital yesterday.

Television footage showed a ball of fire roaring towards the minister, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, as he signalled the start of the race. K.A Karunarathne, a former top marathon runner, was among the dead. About 100 people, some of them runners in the race, were wounded. Mr Fernandopulle, 55, was a member of the government negotiating team for failed peace talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels two years ago.

"The death toll has gone up to 15 including the suicide bomber, 11 bodies were identified and there are parts of bodies from another four people," said Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media centre for national security.

Authorities immediately blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"It's a suicide attack, definitely by the LTTE," said a bomb squad official, speaking at the scene on condition of anonymity. The official said the bomb was very close to the minister and contained a large quantity of explosives.

Mr Fernandopulle was the second minister to be killed since January. The Minister for Nation Building, D.M. Dassanayake, died in a roadside blast in the same district, Gampaha.

The Sri Lankan military has launched an offensive on the LTTE's northern strongholds in which at least 100 rebel fighters were killed last week, according to the military. The rebels have, in the past, hit back with bombings in Colombo and in the relatively peaceful south of the island when they have come under military pressure in the north and east. Yesterday's attack took place in the town of Weliveriya, 30 kilometres from Colombo.

"I heard an explosion and with that saw a fire ball going towards the minister as he was prepared to signal the race," a witness said. "After that I saw people lying in pools of blood."

The Tigers are fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island in a 25-year civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people.

"The assassination of such a committed democrat once again shows the total contempt of the LTTE to the democratic process, and its unquestioned commitment to violence and terror to achieve it narrow and limited objectives, that are far removed from the interests of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka," President Mahinda Rajapaksahe said in a statement.