|
Colombo: A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka's highways minister and at least 11 others gathered for a marathon race on Sunday near the capital, the government said.
"Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle is dead from the explosion," Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media centre for national security, said.
A former top Sri Lankan marathon runner, K.A Karunarathne, was among those killed while 100 people, some of them participants in the race to mark the upcoming New Year, were wounded.
The attack comes amidst an offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military on the northern strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which at least 100 rebel fighters were killed last week, the military said.
The rebels have in the past hit back with bombings in the capital, Colombo, and in the relatively peaceful south of the war-ravaged island when they have come under military pressure in the north and east.
Sunday's attack took place in the town of Weliveriya, 30km from Colombo, where Fernandopulle had gone to flag off the marathon race.
Television footage showed a ball of fire moving towards the minister as he signalled the start of the run.
"Its a suicide attack, definitely by the LTTE," said a bomb squad official, speaking on condition of anonymity from the scene.
President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the killing, blaming it on the LTTE, but said it would not weaken his government's resolve to put down terrorism.
Extreme provocation
"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 its narrow and limited objectives, that are far removed from the interests of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka," he said in a statement.
"While calling on the people to be calm and collected in the face of such extreme provocation by the forces of terror, I wish to reiterate that this dastardly act will not weaken our resolve to eradicate terrorism from our midst."
The LTTE, which usually denies any involvement in such attacks, was not immediately available for comment.
Fernandopulle, 55, was a member of the government negotiating team for failed peace talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels two years ago.
He was the second minister to be killed since January, when the minister for nation building, D.M. Dassanayake, died in a roadside blast in the same district, Gampaha.
Foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was the most senior government leader to be killed in recent years, shot dead at his home in Colombo by a suspected Tamil Tiger sniper in August 2005.
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.
March 1991: Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne is among 19 killed when a car bomb is detonated in Colombo, the first major killing of a top leader.
May 1991: Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is killed in southern India by a woman LTTE suicide bomber during an election rally.
May 1993: President Ranasinghe Premadasa and 23 others are killed by a suicide bomber during a May Day march.
December 1999: President Chandrika Kumaratunga is wounded in an attempted assassination by a suicide bomber in Colombo just as she is getting into her car following an election rally. At least 34 are killed in two explosions. She loses an eye.
June 2000: Industrial Development Minister C.V. Gunaratne and 21 others are killed in a suicide bomb blast in Colombo. The minister was involved in raising funds for the war against the LTTE.
August 2005: Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is shot dead at his home in Colombo by a suspected Tamil Tiger sniper.
April 2006: Army Commander Major General Sarath Fonseka is badly hurt in an abortive suicide attack inside the Army headquarters in Colombo.
December 2006: Gotabhaya Rajapakse, defence secretary and brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, narrowly escapes a suicide attack by Tamil Tiger rebels in Colombo.
January 8, 2008: Nation Building Minister D.M. Dassanayake is killed by a roadside bomb planted by the rebels in the town of Ja-Ela, 19km north of Colombo.
April 6: Suicide bomb blast kills Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and at least 11 other people in the western town of Weliveriya, 30km from Colombo.
|
