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Sri Lankan minister among 14
dead in blast
Colombo—A suicide bomber attacked the opening ceremony of a marathon
outside Sri Lanka’s capital Sunday, killing a government minister
and 13 other people, authorities said. Dozens were wounded.
Officials blamed the bombing, the second this year resulting in the
death of a senior government official, on Tamil Tiger rebels.
Runners and onlookers gathered at the starting line of the marathon
in Weliweriya, 12 miles from Colombo, part of the national
celebration of the upcoming Sinhalese New Year.
Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, the minister of highways and the ruling
party’s chief whip, approached the starting line with a flag he
planned to wave to start the race when the bomb exploded, witnesses
said.
“There was a sound of huge explosion and I saw a fireball” said
Nishan Priyantha, a local journalist who stood few yards away from
the blast, but escaped unhurt. Television footage showed chaotic
images of screaming people running through the bloodied streets.
Fernandopulle, an acid-tongued politician who acted as the
government’s chief political enforcer and was considered a top rebel
target, died on the spot, said government spokesman Lakshman
Hulugalle, blaming the rebels.
“I saw the minister’s body. It had been torn into pieces below the
waist and there were other bodies without heads and legs,” Priyantha
said. Eleven others were killed — including 1992 Olympic marathoner
K.A. Karunaratne and national athletic coach Lakshman de Alwis — and
more than 90 were wounded, Hulugalla said.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the attack as an act of
savagery and vowed to push ahead with the war on the rebels.
“This dastardly act will not weaken our resolve to eradicate
terrorism from our midst, and bring peace, harmony and democracy to
all our people,” he said in a statement.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking
comment. The Tamil Tigers, listed as a terror group by the United
States and European Union, routinely deny responsibility for such
attacks.
Fighting in Sri Lanka has increased in recent months since the
government officially ended a six-year cease-fire in January.—AFP
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