A suspected suicide bomber killed herself and at least four others yesterday in a high-security zone of Colombo in the first such attack in the Sri Lankan capital since Tamil rebels joined a truce in 2002, officials said.
The woman was being escorted to a police station opposite the US and British diplomatic missions when she detonated explosives she was carrying, a military official told AFP.
The woman and four policemen were killed and another 12 people were wounded, the official said.
The attack bore the trademarks of the Tamil Tigers, who on Monday marked the 17th anniversary of their first suicide bombing in their campaign to establish a separate homeland for the island's Tamil minority.
Police said the woman was stopped yesterday for a routine check and questioning in the high-security zone in which Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse has his main office.
Police sources speculated that a Tamil minister in the government, Douglas Devananda, may have been the intended target of the attack.
The last suicide bombing in Colombo was in October 2001 when a Tiger detonated explosives strapped to his body as he was being questioned by police guarding then prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake in Colombo.
A policeman and a civilian were killed and 16 others were wounded in that attack.
Government forces and the Tamil Tigers entered a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in February 2002, but peace talks have been stalled since April last year despite a series of visits by envoys from Oslo aimed at jumpstarting the process.
The Tigers on Tuesday accused government forces of preparing for war in the island's volatile east after the killing of a rebel political activist.
The three-decade ethnic conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in