Sri Lankan Minister Among Dozen Killed in Suicide Blast at Marathon

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 who were waiting for the 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 16 miles north of the capital, Colombo. "I saw severed heads, hands and legs," a witness, Nalin Warnasooriya, told the Associated Press. "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, who routinely deny such attacks, could not be contacted last night, although yesterday's bombing bears all 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 criticizing Sri Lanka's human rights record, emphasizes the rebels' ability to strike deep at the heart of the establishment despite heavy aerial bombardment of their heartland in the north of the country.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - designated a terrorist organization 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 people but was only officially acknowledged in January when the government ended a 2002 ceasefire, saying that "terrorists" had used the truce to re-arm and plan attacks.

Tamils, who are predominately Hindu and make up 12% 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 attack blamed on Tamil rebels.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned yesterday's attack and said that he would eradicate terrorism in the country.

The Sri Lankan military has vowed to crush the rebels by the year's end, but experts say it is facing more resistance than it expected.