Suicide Bomber Kills 14 at Sri Lankan Marathon

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A suicide bomber killed 14 people at an opening ceremony for a marathon yesterday, including a government minister who was nearing the starting line with a flag and a former olympian. More than 90 others were wounded in the attack.

Officials blamed the bombing on the Tamil Tigers, rebels who have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for the ethnic minority Tamils, marginalized for decades by successive governments run by majority ethnic Sinhalese.

The rebel group routinely denies attacks on civilians, and their spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Scores of runners and onlookers had gathered at the starting line of the marathon in Weliweriya, about 12 miles from the capital, Colombo, as part of the national celebration of the upcoming Sinhalese New Year.

The minister of highways and the ruling party's chief whip, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, approached the starting line with a flag he planned to wave to start the race when the bomb exploded, witnesses said.

"There was a sound of huge explosion and I saw a fireball," a local journalist who was a few yards away from the blast, but escaped unhurt, Nishan Priyantha, said.

Television footage showed chaotic images of screaming people running through the bloodied streets.

"I saw severed heads, hands, and legs," a witness Nalin Warnasooriya told the Associated Press. "Blood and body parts were everywhere. It was a horrible scene."

Fernandopulle, an acid-tongued politician who acted as the government's chief political enforcer and was considered a top rebel target, died on the spot, a government spokesman, Lakshman Hulugalle, said.

"I saw the minister's body. It had been torn into pieces below the waist and there were other bodies without heads and legs," Mr. Priyantha said by telephone.

Fernandopulle was also a member of a government delegation involved in failed peace talks with Tamil rebels two years ago. The government said a funeral with state honors would be held for him Thursday.

Thirteen others were killed — including former olympic marathoner K.A. Karunaratne and national athletics coach Lakshman de Alwis — and more than 90 were wounded, Mr. Hulugalle said.