More bombs go off in Myanmar
Two small bombs went off in eastern Myanmar on late October 16 and early October 17, killing one person and wounding at least six others, the latest in a series of unexplained explosions to hit the country.
The blasts occured in Namkham on the northern tip of Shan state in the east of the country. An investigation is still under way, he said, adding no suspects have yet been named.
Myanmar has been rocked by at least nine small bombs in the last week, killing three people in attacks denounced by the US Embassy as “acts of terror.”
“Acts of violence like those perpetrated and attempted over the past week have no place in civilized society,” a statement issued by the embassy said.
The most high-profile attack was at the luxury Traders Hotel in the country’s main city of Yangon, which wounded a 43-year-old American woman.
The officer at the Namkham police station said one person had been killed and six others wounded in the Shan state blasts, none of them critically.
They appeared to be low-intensity explosions, causing little damage to nearby structures, he said, adding “they may have been time bombs, but we don’t know for sure.”
In the past days, other blasts hit a market, a bus stop and a Chinese restaurant around the country’s main city Yangon, along with other explosions in other regions of the country.
Wo stands behind the attacks is unclear yet. One possible motive could be to try to derail talks between the government and minority rebel ethnic groups. Another theory says that the bombings could have been undertaken to try to discredit the current government and put the security forces back in charge. Diplomats also think that there could be a connection to a group outside the country which tries to derail the current government.
The key suspect behind the Traders Hotel bombing was arrested on October 15 after driving his motorbike through a barricade set up to stop him on a road in Bilin township, southeast of Yangon. Identified as Saw Myint Lwin, 26, the suspect had previously stayed in the 9th-floor room in the ritzy Traders Hotel where the bomb went off on October 14.
He is also suspected of planting a bomb found earlier at the Western Park Restaurant, police said. Some local media reports identified Saw Myint Lwin as an ethnic Karen.
Local media reports said that two other suspects held in connection with an unexploded bomb at the Golden Duck eatery in Mandalay as an ethnic Chinese woman named Chin Su Yin and a man named Aung Aung but also known as Mohamed Harley. The woman, though from Myanmar, is apparently a Malaysian citizen, while a police officer at the Mandalay Police Department said she was a Singapore citizen who had lived in Malaysia for ten years. Aung Aung is a resident of Yangon’s Tamwe township, police said.
Two small bombs went off in eastern Myanmar on late October 16 and early October 17, killing one person and wounding at least six others, the latest in a series of unexplained explosions to hit the country. The blasts occured in Namkham on the northern tip of Shan state in the east of the country. An investigation is still under way, he said, adding no suspects have yet been named. Myanmar has been rocked by at least nine small bombs in the last week, killing three people in attacks denounced by the US Embassy as "acts of terror." "Acts of...
Two small bombs went off in eastern Myanmar on late October 16 and early October 17, killing one person and wounding at least six others, the latest in a series of unexplained explosions to hit the country.
The blasts occured in Namkham on the northern tip of Shan state in the east of the country. An investigation is still under way, he said, adding no suspects have yet been named.
Myanmar has been rocked by at least nine small bombs in the last week, killing three people in attacks denounced by the US Embassy as “acts of terror.”
“Acts of violence like those perpetrated and attempted over the past week have no place in civilized society,” a statement issued by the embassy said.
The most high-profile attack was at the luxury Traders Hotel in the country’s main city of Yangon, which wounded a 43-year-old American woman.
The officer at the Namkham police station said one person had been killed and six others wounded in the Shan state blasts, none of them critically.
They appeared to be low-intensity explosions, causing little damage to nearby structures, he said, adding “they may have been time bombs, but we don’t know for sure.”
In the past days, other blasts hit a market, a bus stop and a Chinese restaurant around the country’s main city Yangon, along with other explosions in other regions of the country.
Wo stands behind the attacks is unclear yet. One possible motive could be to try to derail talks between the government and minority rebel ethnic groups. Another theory says that the bombings could have been undertaken to try to discredit the current government and put the security forces back in charge. Diplomats also think that there could be a connection to a group outside the country which tries to derail the current government.
The key suspect behind the Traders Hotel bombing was arrested on October 15 after driving his motorbike through a barricade set up to stop him on a road in Bilin township, southeast of Yangon. Identified as Saw Myint Lwin, 26, the suspect had previously stayed in the 9th-floor room in the ritzy Traders Hotel where the bomb went off on October 14.
He is also suspected of planting a bomb found earlier at the Western Park Restaurant, police said. Some local media reports identified Saw Myint Lwin as an ethnic Karen.
Local media reports said that two other suspects held in connection with an unexploded bomb at the Golden Duck eatery in Mandalay as an ethnic Chinese woman named Chin Su Yin and a man named Aung Aung but also known as Mohamed Harley. The woman, though from Myanmar, is apparently a Malaysian citizen, while a police officer at the Mandalay Police Department said she was a Singapore citizen who had lived in Malaysia for ten years. Aung Aung is a resident of Yangon’s Tamwe township, police said.
