Colombo - A suicide bomber set off explosives strapped to her body killing herself and 12 others outside the Sri Lankan Prime Minister's office yesterday in the third assassination bid in as many weeks, police said. The woman, believed to be a member of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), carried out the attack as she was about to be searched by security staff of the Prime Minister, Ms Sirima Bandaranaike (83), police said.
Just over two hours later, a prominent ethnic Tamil political leader, known to be sympathetic to the Tigers, was assassinated in another part of the capital, Colombo. He was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes. Police said a gunman had fired two shots at close range and escaped.