CHRONOLOGY-Major bombings in Sri Lanka blamed on Tamil Tigers

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Oct. 6 (Reuters) -- Sri Lankan authorities blamed a Monday suicide blast in an ancient tourist town which killed at least 26 people, including a popular retired army general who had turned to politics, on the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The Tigers are credited with perfecting the suicide bomb as a weapon in a 25-year war against Sri Lanka's government, and have killed hundreds including top politicians in bombings, suicide or otherwise. Here are some major bombings blamed on them:

April 1987 - Car bomb explodes at Colombo central bus station, killing 113 people and wounding scores.

April 1989 - Car bomb explodes in the eastern port of Trincomalee, killing 51 people shopping for traditional new year.

March 1991: Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne is among 19 killed when a car bomb is detonated in Colombo.

May 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is killed in southern India by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber.

November 1992 - Navy chief Clancey Fernando is killed in a suicide bombing in Colombo.

May 1993 - President Ranasinghe Premadasa and 23 others are killed by a suicide bomber in Colombo.