Suicide Bomber Attacks Marathon in Sri Lanka, 14 Killed at least 90 Injured

At least 14 people have died and more than 90 left injured after a suicide bomber targeted the opening ceremony of a marathon in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

The bomber detonated the explosive just as the runners were approaching the starting line in Weliweriya. As a government official approached the line to start the race the powerful bomb detonated. Body parts were strewn across the street as survivors ran screaming from the site.

While no group has accepted responsibility for the attack officials have placed blame on the rebel group Tamil Tigers. The ethnic minority Tamils have spent years trying to gain an independent homeland from the ethnic majority Sinhalese who controlled Sri Lanka’s government for decades.

Among those killed from the blast was Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, the government official who had been walking to the starting line to signal the beginning of the race. Fernandopulle had been an outspoken critic of the Tamils.

Shortly after the blast Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to stamp out the rebels and condemned the attack as an act of savagery.

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