Sri Lankan rebels exploded a bomb in the northern town of Jaffna on Friday, killing 12 people including the local mayor and an army commander, the defense ministry said.
"There was a blast at the Jaffna municipality office while a meeting was in progress where a number of senior military and police officials were present," military spokesman Brigadier Sunil Ten-na-koon told Reuters."Initial investigations confirm that LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is responsible for this explosion," the defense ministry added in a statement.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. The LTTE, fighting for a homeland for minority Tamils in the country's north and east, has yet to comment.
The dead included local army commander Brigadier Susantha Mendis, police senior superintendent Chandra Perera, two police assistant superintendents and Mayor P. Sivapalan.
Sivapalan, a member of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), died of his wounds in hospital, the statement said.
Four local government officials and three other police and military officials were also killed. Some civilians were wounded.
Earlier, military officials in Jaffna told Reuters by telephone that 11 people were killed and up to eight wounded in the blast, a few miles from Jaffna city center.
The blast blew off the roof of the single-story building, residents said by phone.
"There is nothing much left there," one resident said.