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COLOMBO : A Sri Lankan government minister was killed and 10 others wounded on Tuesday in a powerful roadside bomb attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels near the island's capital, officials said.
Minister of Nation Building D. M. Dassanayake suffered severe head injuries and died while undergoing surgery, doctor Lalini Gunasekera at the Ragama hospital said. She said four other people were in a critical condition.
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.
Sri Lankan police and security forces have been on high alert for Tamil Tiger attacks after the government announced last week it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire agreement with the ethnic rebels.
On Sunday, security forces also conducted a major search operation in the capital and airport area. According to police, 28,000 vehicles were searched, 75,000 people questioned and 198 arrested.
Following the bombing, police closed the main road to the airport and asked passengers on international airlines to take alternate routes while investigators sifted through the debris on the highway.
The latest attack also came five days after a similar roadside bomb in Colombo targeted a military bus, killing five people. The authorities blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for that attack.
The Tigers are yet to formally respond to the government's decision to pull out of the truce, which officially ends on January 16. The rebels, however, have already said that peace talks with the island's ethnic Sinhalese majority are a waste of time.
Fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers has also been escalating in the north, where the rebels run a de facto mini-state.
According to government figures, 95 rebels and six soldiers have died in fighting since the start of the month -- although independent verification of casualty figures is rarely possible.
The government now believes it has the upper hand over the rebels and is in a position to capture the north.
Tens of thousands of people have died in the 35-year-old conflict, one of Asia's longest-running wars.
- AFP/vm
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