At least 11 people, including a senior Sri Lankan government minister, have been killed in a suicide bombing near the capital Colombo, officials say.
Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was attending a function to mark the forthcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year in the western district of Grampaha.
The defence ministry blamed Tamil Tiger rebels, who want an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.
Mr Fernandopulle is the second minister to have been assassinated this year.
The former minister for nation building, DM Dassanayake, was killed in a bombing on 8 January, days after the government pulled out of a crumbling ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers.
The government has since vowed to crush the separatist rebels by the end of this year or the next. At least 70,000 people have died since the war began in 1983.
- SNNI
Related posts:
- Casualties in Sri Lanka explosion A blast near the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, has killed...
- Sri Lanka human rights abuse probe ‘set to fail’ A presidential commission in Sri Lanka investigating human rights abuses...
- Abducted Sri Lanka Red Cross staff shot dead Colombo: Two Sri Lankan Red Cross volunteers who had been...
- Sri Lanka: India urges Rajapaksa devolution package Sharad Pawar, Indian Minister for Agriculture and political veteran, has...
- Benazir Bhutto ‘killed in blast’ Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in...
- ‘Indian Security’ for Chandrika By P.K. Balachandran Colombo: Sri Lankan Minister for National Heritage...