Suicide bomber kills 12 at Sri Lanka marathon

A suicide bomber attacked the opening ceremony of a marathon outside Sri Lanka’s capital today, killing a government minister and 11 other people, authorities said. Dozens were wounded.

Officials blamed the bombing, the second this year to kill a senior government official, on Tamil Tiger rebels.

Minister of Highways and Road Development Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who was opening the race 12 miles from Colombo, died of his injuries in hospital, said government spokesman Anusha Paltipa.

Eleven others were killed – including former Olympic marathoner K.A. Karunaratne and national athletic coach Lakshman de Alwis – and more than 90 were wounded, officials said.

Television footage showed chaotic images of people screaming as they ran through the bloodied streets.

“I saw severed heads, hands and legs,” said witness Nalin Warnasooriya. “Blood and body parts were everywhere. It was a horrible scene.”

The violence was part of a heavy increase in fighting in the country’s civil war since the government officially ended a six year ceasefire in January.

The military has vowed to crush the rebels by the year’s end, but diplomats and other observers say it is facing more resistance than it expected.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils who have been marginalised for decades by successive governments run by majority ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Earlier this year, Nation Building Minister D.M. Dassanayake was killed when a bomb tore through his car as he travelled north of Colombo.