Sri Lanka suicide blast bore the hallmarks of the LTTE: SLMM
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, June 27, IRNA
Sri Lanka-SLMM-Suicide Attack
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said Tuesday that yesterday's assassination of Major General Parami Kulatunga had been carried out by the LTTE as the suicide bombing bore the hallmarks of the LTTE.
"It's a well-planned assassination and has the hallmarks of the LTTE.
"We hope it won't have a disastrous effect on what remains of the cease-fire," said SLMM spokesman Thorfinnur Omarsson in Colombo, Colombo Page reported.
Maj. Gen. Kulatunga, was the highest ranking military officer killed since the signing of the ceasefire agreement. He was killed, when he was coming to the Army Headquarters in Colombo at Pannipitiya, where a suicide motorcyclist rammed into his car.
Meanwhile, four Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in an attack by a rival faction in Sri Lanka early Tuesday and a soldier was shot dead overnight, police said, as spiralling violence stoked fears of renewed civil war.
The attack in an area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the restive east came a day after a suspected Tiger suicide bomber assassinated the army deputy chief of staff.
A wave of attacks on the island has now killed around 700 people so far this year.
However, following yesterday's suicide attack in Pannipitiya, dozens of road blocks had been set up in Colombo while deploying thousands of military personnel on the streets.
A senior military official said that a large number of heavily armed military personnel have been deployed to assist the police and sudden search and clearing operations are underway in the city.
The military requested the public to co-operate with them and the Police in view of the importance of those measures at national level.
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