A suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber killed at least seven troops and one civilian in a blast at a guard post near the Sri Lankan capital yesterday, authorities said.
Another 17 people, including four civilians, were wounded.
The blast came as heavy fighting in the 25-year-old war between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces raged in the country’s north. The navy said it destroyed a rebel boat while a pro-rebel Web site reported that at least 50 soldiers had been killed in a battle near a guerrilla stronghold.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the suicide bomber forced his way into the Civil Defense Force post in Wattala town and blew himself up. Wattala is a few kilometers north of Colombo.
The blast killed six Civil Defense Force officers, one army soldier and a civilian, while another 13 officers and four civilians were wounded, Nanayakkara said. He blamed the Tamil Tigers.
Dinesh Kumara, 29, was selling vegetables at a nearby fair when the blast went off.
“I heard a huge sound. Then when I ran to the site, I saw flesh and blood splattered all over the area,” Kumara said.
A photographer at the scene saw several bodies and body parts on the ground.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast and there was no immediate comment from the guerrillas.
The Tamil Tigers, listed by the US and the EU as a terrorist organization, routinely deny involvement in suicide attacks. Sri Lankan authorities accuse the separatists of having carried out more than 240 suicide bombings against political, military and economic targets since the early 1980s.
The bombing came amid intensified efforts by government forces to overrun the Tamil rebels’ de facto northern state. Fighting has escalated in recent months, with the military saying it has captured several rebel bases and large chunks of territory and vowing that the end of the separatist insurgency is imminent.
Navy spokesman D.K.P. Dassanayake said government forces destroyed a Tamil Tiger rebel boat carrying supplies off the island’s northern coast yesterday, killing at least four insurgents. He said the vessel may have been carrying fuel.
Rebel spokesmen could not be contacted for comment because communications to much of the north have been severed.
Meanwhile, the rebel-linked TamilNet Web site reported yesterday that rebel fighters killed at least 50 government troops in fighting on Saturday near the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu.
Nanayakkara dismissed the account and said only nine soldiers were killed in that area.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS