A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka's highways minister and at least 11 others on Sunday gathered for a marathon race near the capital, the government said.
"Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle is dead from the explosion," Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media centre for national security, told Reuters.
A former top Sri Lankan marathon runner, K.A Karunarathne, was among those killed while 100 people, some of them participants in the race to mark the upcoming New Year, were wounded.
The attack comes amidst an offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military on the northern strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which at least 100 rebel fighters were killed last week, the military said.
The rebels have in the past hit back with bombings in the capital, Colombo, and in the relatively peaceful south of the war-ravaged island when they have come under military pressure in the north and east.
Sunday's attack took place in the town of Weliveriya, 30 km (19 miles) from Colombo, where Fernandopulle had gone to flag off the marathon race.
Television footage showed a ball of fire moving towards the minister as he signalled the start of the run.
"Its a suicide attack, definitely by the LTTE," said a bomb squad official, speaking on condition of anonymity from the scene.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the killing, blaming it on the LTTE, but said it would not weaken his government's resolve to put down terrorism.
