Roadside bomb kills Sri Lanka minister
COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan government minister was killed Tuesday in a powerful roadside bomb attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels near the island’s capital and international airport, officials said.
D. M. Dassanayake, the 51-year-old minister for nation building, suffered severe head injuries and died while undergoing surgery, said doctor Lalini Gunasekera at the Ragama hospital here.
Officials said one other person died and nine were wounded in the attack, the second such bombing in the Colombo area since the government abandoned a ceasefire with the ethnic Tamil rebels last week.
Police said a fragmentation mine — a device frequently used by the Tamil Tigers — was detonated as the minister’s convoy passed the town of Ja-Ela, between Colombo and the international airport.
“The minister was on his way to parliament when his white Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle was hit by a Claymore… his vehicle has been badly damaged,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said
Updated at : Tuesday, January 08, 2008