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Another suicide blast kills 12 outside Lankan PM office

COLOMBO: A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people and wounded 28 near the Sri Lankan prime minister's office in central Colombo on Wednesday, just weeks after the country's president survived an assassination attempt, police said.

Four others were in serious condition in hospital.

Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike was not in her office at the time of the explosion, officials said. Police suspect rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were behind the blast.

"Two women constables and two policemen of the prime minister's office, a passerby and the suicide bomber were killed in the explosion," Jagath Jayawardena, deputy inspector general of police, told reporters at the scene.

Officials said that five others had died while being taken to hospital. The local TNL radio said one more had died after being admitted to hospital.

In a separate incident, a prominent Tamil politician and lawyer, Kumar Ponnambalam, was shot dead in a Colombo suburb by a lone gunman who escaped, police and witnesses said.

They said Ponnambalam, leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, was killed while driving his car in the Tamil-dominated Wellawatte area.

Ponnambalam was known to openly espouse the cause of a separate homeland for minority Tamils that the LTTE have been fighting for since 1983. Officials said President Chandrika Kumaratunga -- Bandaranaike's daughter -- had called a meeting of top security officials to discuss the situation in the capital.

Security officials said the road on which the explosion occurred is commonly used by VIPs, but it was not immediately clear if the suicide bomber was targeting a particular person.

Intelligence agencies had recently warned of suicide bomb attacks on leading politicians and police had tightened security in the capital.

A Reuters correspondent saw parts of bodies strewn around the area of the blast, but there was no damage to the prime minister's office.

The office lies in a plush residential area and next to a petrol station. The nearby Russian and Saudi embassies were not damaged.

Officials said the suicide bomber, whom they suspected was a woman, was walking past the prime minister's office when security guards stopped her for questioning. The bomber then triggered the explosion.

Police and soldiers cordoned off the road as investigators descended on the blast site, also close to a girl's school.

The school was closed for winter holidays.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, but police blamed the LTTE. On December 18, a suspected LTTE rebel suicide bomber blew herself up at a campaign rally for President Kumaratunga.

At least 26 people were killed and more than 100 wounded, including Kumaratunga. She has said that doctors have told her she would lose the sight in her right eye due to the explosion.

Days later she won a second six-year term as president.

Weeks before the election, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran heaped abuse on Kumaratunga and said her five-year rule was a "curse" on Tamils, sending a signal to the Tamil minority.

The LTTE have been blamed for various bomb blasts in Colombo, including the 1996 explosion at the Central Bank building in the busy Fort area of the capital in which nearly 100 people were killed and more than 1,300 wounded.

In 1997, a truck bomb severely damaged the twin tower World Trade Centre in the Fort area. Many other buildings, including hotels and the finance ministry, were damaged.

Last year, a suspected LTTE suicide bomber blew himself up at a car killing prominent Tamil lawmaker Neelan Thiruchelvam, who was seen as the co-author of the government's political devolution package aimed at ending the long ethnic war.

The fighting between the guerrillas and government troops in the country's north has escalated in recent weeks.-Reuters