Sri Lanka has been rocked by two separate suicide bombings, one of which badly injured President Chandrika Kumaratunga and claimed the lives of 22 people.
The attack on Kumaratunga -- believed to be the work of separatist Tamil Tigers -- came just hours before a bomb blast at an opposition rally that killed 11.
Police said they found parts of the body of a man they believe was the suicide bomber in the first blast. The assassin had been dressed like a woman, in a sari.
The bomber struck just three days before tomorrow's presidential poll, in which Kumaratunga is seeking re-election on a promise to end the nation's bitter ethnic conflict.
The bomb went off as the president wound up her election campaign outside the town hall in downtown Colombo.
Kumaratunga underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from her face, with doctors concentrating on an injury just above one of her eyes, a doctor said.
"She may risk losing an eye," one of the surgeons said.
However, media minister Mangala Samaraweera insisted the president was in full control of all her faculties.
"I don't think one has to have any doubts about her condition," Samaraweera told reporters. "She opened a section of the presidential secretariat in the hospital and is in full control .... If anything, she is bossier than ever."
Samaraweera said Kumaratunga had ordered that the election should go ahead and that the blast had made her more determined to find a political solution to the war.
Police said Kumaratunga was about to get into her car after addressing the rally of her People's Alliance party when the explosion occurred.
Maya Mirchandani, a reporter for the Hong Kong-based STAR-TV, said Kumaratunga had paused for a minute to answer a question when the blast occurred about 15 meters away. "She fell on the ground. I don't know how many security men fell on her," Mirchandani said.
Fireworks had been going off after Kumaratunga ended her speech, she said.
"But it was the smell of burning flesh and the sound" that convinced them that it was a bomb blast, she added.
The death toll from the explosion had risen to 22 last night after some of the seriously wounded succumbed to their injuries. Some 110 people were wounded in the blast.
Soon after the first attack, a second bomb exploded at a meeting of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) in Ja-Ela, a Colombo suburb, killing at least 11 people and injuring 70.
Initial investigations indicated the second explosion may also have been caused by a suicide bomber, a senior police official said, adding this could only be confirmed after a proper investigation.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either bombing. However, police have taken 15 people into custody.
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