COLOMBO, January 8: A sri lankan Government minister was killed on Tuesday in a roadside bombing blamed on the LTTE, the first successful assassination of a top Sri Lankan official in 19 months.

The bomb tore through the car carrying Nation Building Minister D M Dassanayake as he traveled through the Ja-Ela area, about 20 kms north of Colombo, said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

Another man, who had not yet been identified, was also killed in the explosion, said Dharmawardena Guruge, a physician in the hospital where Dassanayake was taken.

“The minister was critically injured and was in a very serious condition even when he was brought here,” Guruge said. He said that doctors immediately took Dassanayake in for surgery, but the minister died.

Dassanayake, who was not a member of the Cabinet, suffered head injuries and wounds “all over the body”, the doctor said.

The blast, which came days after the Government officially pulled out of a ceasefire with the LTTE, wounded 10 others. A security guard and a driver were also in the car, but it was not clear if they were killed or wounded.

“This is a very brutal assassination and we are saddened, we are quite sure that it was done by the terrorists,” Media Minister Anura Yapa said. “The Government is doing its best to protect the civilians, their properties and also parliamentarians,” Yapa said. He did not say why Dassanayake might have been targeted.

The killing was almost certain to intensify the raging civil war between military forces and rebel fighters in the north.

“We have still not arrested anybody, but the suspicion is on the LTTE,” Nanayakkara said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment.

A suicide bomber killed an aide to Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda in November in a failed assassination that was recorded by security cameras. Bombing attacks in 2006 also failed to kill Army Commander Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The last successful assassination took place in June 2006, when the rebels killed Maj Gen Parami Kulatunga, the country’s third-highest-ranking military officer.