From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Saturday, March 11, 2000-Vol. 6, No. 071
SRI LANKA
Suicide Bombers Leave Total Of 27 Dead
From ERRI World Watch Center
At
least 21 people were killed and 64 others were wounded after a suicide
bomber attempted to assassinate Sri Lanka's defense minister and armed
forces chiefs. Four Tamil Tigers suspected of being involved in the bombing
killed themselves after the apartment they were hiding in was surrounded by
anti- terrorist commandos. The men appeared to have used explosives to blow
themselves up just as security forces were preparing an assault the
building.
The assassination attempt occurred late Friday. The suicide bomber had intended to target a motorcade of government ministers and other political leaders, but prematurely triggered the device strapped to his chest. The bomb blast triggered a shootout between the bombers' accomplices and police. Two more rebel bodies were found at the blast site early Saturday.
There were no claims of responsibility following Friday's attack, but Tamil rebels were suspected. The four men who killed themselves appeared to be in their early 20s. Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam routinely kill themselves to avoid capture. ERRI's Clark Staten said that this incident is reminiscent of a series of attacks that took place during March of 1998 (see references below), and that given this pattern...that it is possible that additional attacks could be expected.
10 March 2000 - From http://www.emergency.com/ennday.htm
SRI LANKA:
BREAKING NEWS
Explosion Kills 15, At least 45 Wounded
Colombo, Sri Lanka (EmergencyNet News) -- At least fifteen people were killed today (Friday) in the Borella section of Colombo, including five police officers. More than forty-five others were wounded, several critically, as a bomb exploded in the busy commercial district. Emergency service sources say that they believe the blast was caused by what they are calling a "suicide bomber."
It is also believed that the bomber may have been targeting a motorcade of government ministers and political leaders, and that the bomb may have exploded prematurely. None-the-less, reports from the scene say that it devastated a neighborhood with its carnage, damaging as many as 25 vehicles and several buildings. No one has claimed responsibility for the event so far, but police and intelligence services are blaming Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerillas for the atrocity.
From
EmergencyNet News archives
March 8, 1998--ANALYSTS PREDICT MORE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN SRI LANKA
March 5, 1998--TERRORIST BUS BOMB KILLS 30 IN SRI LANKA...
01/31/96-12:00CST--Colombo Truck bomb Kills 55, 1,200 Injured
03/1/93--INDIAN BOMBINGS CAUSED BY "FOREIGN EXTREMISTS", ACCORDING TO POLICE (Police statements would seem to indicate that they may have been mistaken in their assumptions at the time. EmergencyNet News editors, however, found this piece particularly interesting, as it describes an evolution of precursors to later events in Kashmir.)
Important Additional Resources:
4 November, 1999, 18:48GMT-- BBC Timeline of the Tamil conflict
Official Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Dept. of Information Page
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