A Sri Lankan suicide bomber killed 26 people including a retired army general who is the provincial leader of the main opposition party.
The bomber walked into the opening of a new office for the opposition United National Party (UNP) in the north central town of Anuradhapura, 200 km north of the capital Colombo, attended by retired Major-General Janaka Perera, police said.
Maj Gen Perera and his wife were killed.
Maj Gen Perera in August unsuccessfully ran to be chief minister of the province, a powerful local position.
Police had no immediate suspects in the attack. But the rebel Tamil Tigers have assassinated many politicians over the years using suicide bombers, a technique they have perfected during their 25-year war to establish a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils.
The military is on the edge of their headquarters town of Kilinochchi, a strategic and symbolic prize in an intensifying war in which the military is growing increasingly confident of a conventional victory.