Sri Lankan forces defused a package bomb hidden in the garden of a heavily guarded Colombo apartment building filled with legislators' homes yesterday, preventing another attack just days after two bombings killed 20 people, the military said.
The 1.2kg explosive device -- discovered by a resident -- was presumed to be an assassination attempt by Tamil Tiger rebels on the air force chief, Air Marshall Roshan Goonetilleke, whose house is located in the area, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
"There are so many senior officers living there -- including parliamentarians, military officers -- it is not possible to say who [the target] is," he said. "But we suspect they targeted the air force commander."
PHOTO: AFP
ONE IN A SERIES
The bomb attempt appeared part of a new wave of attacks by the rebels in the capital.
On Wednesday last week, a bomber killed one person in a government office in a failed attempt to kill a Cabinet minister. Hours later, a package bomb exploded at a suburban department store, killing 19. Authorities blamed the separatist Tamil Tigers for the attacks.
European monitors said they feared civilian casualties were approaching the levels seen before a truce between the government and the rebels was signed five years ago. The 2002 ceasefire has largely fallen apart amid fighting between the two sides over the past two years.
The war killed 49 civilians and wounded 60 more from Nov. 25 to 28, the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission said in a statement, referring to the bombing and government attacks in northern areas controlled by rebels.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in 24 years of conflict. The rebels call for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east, following historic discrimination under governments dominated by the majority Sinhalese.
NEW FIGHTING
In new fighting early yesterday, troops killed two rebel fighters in the Vavuniya district just south of rebel-held territory in northern Sri Lanka, the military said. Troops also discovered more than 400 anti-personnel mines in three separate caches in the area.
Earlier attacks across the north -- where the separatist rebels control a de facto state -- killed a total of 56 rebels and six soldiers over the weekend, the military said.
Independent confirmation of the casualties was not available because access to the conflict zone is restricted, and rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.
Both the military and the rebels routinely exaggerate the other's casualty numbers and plays down its own.
The fighting came as the government tightened security in Colombo following the bombings. Troops and police searched most vehicles entering the capital.
Police have been accused of detaining hundreds of Tamils in the crackdown.
"Around 1,000 Tamil people have been arrested without credible evidence within two days," said Mano Ganeshan, a lawmaker.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS