A suspected rebel suicide bomber attacked a gathering of Muslims celebrating a religious holiday outside a mosque in southern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing 10 people and wounding at least 20 others, including a government minister, the military said. The bomber appeared to have targeted six ministers as they walked in a procession toward the mosque to celebrate Mawlid, which commemorates the prophet Mohammed's (PBUH) birthday, said H.M. Fowzie, Sri Lanka's oil minister, who was at the event. «A suicide bomber tried to kill us, but we escaped,» Fowzie told The Associated Press. Fowzie said he was splattered with blood and flesh after the bomb went off behind the ministers. The road was covered with dead bodies and blood, he said. Ahamed Nafri, 29, said he was walking toward the mosque when the blast went off. «I heard a huge sound and then I saw people had fallen everywhere. They were covered with blood and flesh and the wounded people were screaming,» he said by telephone from the hospital in the nearby town of Matara.
