Lanka now safe, all extremists linked to Easter bombings killed or arrested: Security authorities
Colombo:All the extremists involved in the Easter suicide bombings are either killed or arrested, Sri Lankan police and military chiefs have claimed, assuring that the country is now safe and can get back to normalcy.
The tri-forces commanders and the police chief, addressing a press conference on Monday night, said the security of the country following the April 21 bombings that left 257 people dead has been ensured with adequate measures and steps have been taken to implement a special security plan.
Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana Wickremaratne said that all those directly linked to the attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels have been arrested or were killed.
He also said that all the explosives believed to be linked to National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), blamed for the attacks, have been found.
"All explosives possessed by the terrorist group has been seized. Almost everyone identified with the group have been arrested. Two of their bomb experts have died in the clashes. The police can happily announce that everyone with direct links have been either arrested or killed by now," Wickremaratne said.
Wickramaratne did not say how many people have been arrested over the bombings, but police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera on Monday said that 73 people, including nine women, were arrested and being questioned by the CID and the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID).
The police spokesman also said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) identified more than Rs 140 million cash and other assets worth over Rs 7 billion belonging to the NTJ.
The Islamic State terror group claimed the attacks, the island nation's worst, but the government blamed ISIS linked local extremist group NTJ.
Wickramaratne, who was named acting police chief last week after President Maithripala Sirisena suspended his predecessor over his failure to act on intellegence warnings about the attacks, said the country can now get back to normalcy with the lifting of curfews imposed after the attacks.
Wickramaratne urged the public not to be misled by unverified reports. The government reopened schools on Monday, but attendance dropped to below 10 per cent in many places with parents still fearing attacks.
Wickremeratne said a joint security operation with schools authorities are underway. He pointed to unverified security fears spread through social media as the cause for unfounded security concerns.
Army chief Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake said the military has taken steps to ensure national security under the emergency regulations. He said that over the past two weeks normalcy was returning to the country and the public must not be misled by false claims.
All security measures to ensure safety in the country has been taken. The security forces were empowered by the emergency regulations since the attacks," Lt Gen Senanayake said.
The Army chief urged the public to return to their day to day activities. The tourism industry leaders have urged the government to make strong measures to enable the industry to revive following the Easter Sunday attacks on three leading hotels.
The suicide bombers attacked breakfast rooms of the Shangri La, The Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury Hotels. The attacks in which 44 foreigners including 11 Indians were killed prompted adverse travel advisories.
At the moment most bookings are cancelled, with less than 10 per cent of occupancy we are in trouble," Hoteliers Association president Sanath Ukawatta said. The government has already decided on a package of concessions to the tourism industry which contributes 5 per cent of the island's GDP.
The Tourism Authority said the total number of tourist arrivals during April was 166,975. This is an year on year decline of 7.5 per cent as the arrivals were 180,429 in April 2018.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
