Sri Lanka military gets special powers after deadly bombings
- 5 years ago
Following up on the latest regarding the series of bombings that took place in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday…
The death toll continues to grow in the island nation and much more that we're learning...
For more on this and other news from around the world, let's turn to Hong Yoo.
So Hong Yoo, any progress finding out who was responsible?
Well, Connyoung, we now know the group suspected of planning these attacks on churches and tourists spots could be the Nations Thawahid Jaman.
This group has its origins in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the early 2000s.
They have a history of carrying out protests but none that led to violence in the past.
The Sri Lankan government had been warned by intelligence agencies weeks ago of a possible attack by this radical Muslim group.
But its relative obscurity raised questions about it being capable of committing such a sophisticated and coordinated attack.
The first warning came on April 4th from foreign international intelligence agencies that there was a potential plot to launch suicide attacks against Christion churches and tourist spots.
Two additional warnings also came from the country's Defense Ministry and the Deputy Inspector General of Police.
Let's take a listen to what the government had to say about this.
"But it is not all that, because we have got information about everything. There are some more, already about so many arrests have been done, we hope the majority, the security forces say they are suicide bombers. So with that we are doing all the raids and one by one we are catching and all the places, their actually the training places have been identified and we have raided already, so we have taken all the actions by now."
And on Monday, three additional bombs blew up inside a van parked near one of the stricken churches, intensifying the tension in Sri Lanka. How is the Sri Lankan government coping with this situation?
The three additional bombs about are dozens of detonators discovered near the country's capital Colombo.
Local police have declined to say whether they were linked to the attacks.
Sri Lanka's president has ordered the military sweep through the 8 locations where the bombings occured and declared a nationwide state of emergency.
The death toll continues to grow in the island nation and much more that we're learning...
For more on this and other news from around the world, let's turn to Hong Yoo.
So Hong Yoo, any progress finding out who was responsible?
Well, Connyoung, we now know the group suspected of planning these attacks on churches and tourists spots could be the Nations Thawahid Jaman.
This group has its origins in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the early 2000s.
They have a history of carrying out protests but none that led to violence in the past.
The Sri Lankan government had been warned by intelligence agencies weeks ago of a possible attack by this radical Muslim group.
But its relative obscurity raised questions about it being capable of committing such a sophisticated and coordinated attack.
The first warning came on April 4th from foreign international intelligence agencies that there was a potential plot to launch suicide attacks against Christion churches and tourist spots.
Two additional warnings also came from the country's Defense Ministry and the Deputy Inspector General of Police.
Let's take a listen to what the government had to say about this.
"But it is not all that, because we have got information about everything. There are some more, already about so many arrests have been done, we hope the majority, the security forces say they are suicide bombers. So with that we are doing all the raids and one by one we are catching and all the places, their actually the training places have been identified and we have raided already, so we have taken all the actions by now."
And on Monday, three additional bombs blew up inside a van parked near one of the stricken churches, intensifying the tension in Sri Lanka. How is the Sri Lankan government coping with this situation?
The three additional bombs about are dozens of detonators discovered near the country's capital Colombo.
Local police have declined to say whether they were linked to the attacks.
Sri Lanka's president has ordered the military sweep through the 8 locations where the bombings occured and declared a nationwide state of emergency.