COLOMBO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan government minister died on the operating table on Tuesday after his vehicle was targeted by a suspected Tamil Tiger roadside bomb north of the capital, a senior hospital official said.

Nation Building Minister D.M. Dassanayake's vehicle was hit by the blast on Tuesday morning, in the town of Ja-Ela, 12 miles (19 km) north of Colombo, on the main road that leads to the island's only international airport.

"He died a short while ago," said Lalini Gurusinghe, deputy director of the government teaching hospital in the nearby town of Ragama, where the minister and 10 others wounded in the blast were admitted. (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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