SRI LANKA:A SUSPECTED Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated a powerful device yesterday at the start of a marathon race in Sri Lanka, killing a dozen people, including a government minister and a former Olympic athlete.
According to the Sri Lankan government, they were killed instantly as the blast ripped through crowds in Waliweriaya waiting for highways minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle to wave off the runners in an event celebrating the country's new year.
Television pictures showed immediate panic, with screaming people surging through blood-stained streets in the town 26km (16 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. "I saw severed heads, hands and legs," said a witness, Nalin Warnasooriya. "Blood and body parts were everywhere."
The former Olympic marathon runner KA Karunaratne and the national athletics coach, Lakshman de Alwis, were among the dead. News agencies reported almost 100 people were injured.
The Tamil Tigers could not be contacted last night, but yesterday's bombing bears the hallmarks of the rebels' elite suicide squad.
The assassination of Fernandopulle, a Catholic politician who once described a UN official as a "terrorist" for criticising Sri Lanka's human rights record, emphasises the rebels' ability to strike deep at the heart of the establishment despite heavy aerial bombardment of their heartland in the north.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - designated a terrorist organisation by the US, the EU and India - are fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island in a 25-year civil war that has killed about 70,000. It was only officially acknowledged in January when the government ended a 2002 ceasefire, saying "terrorists" had used the truce to re-arm and plan attacks.
Tamils, predominately Hindu and making up 12 per cent of Sri Lanka's 20 million population, claim they have been discriminated against by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Yesterday's killing is the second of a high-ranking government official by the rebels this year. In January, DM Dassanayake, the nation-building minister, died in a roadside bomb.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned yesterday's attack and said he would eradicate terrorism.
- (Guardian service)