Burma prison bombing leaves at least 8 dead, 20 injured
(CNN) — A new blast at a prison in the Burmese capital of Naypyidaw was one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history, while two others killed at the same facility this month suggest the group could be planning similar attacks in the country, according to officials in Naypyidaw.
The Naypyidaw blast and attacks in Mandalay this month killed three senior Islamic insurgents.
In the Naypyidaw blast, a bomb ripped through the main compound of the prison Friday evening, setting off a fire that destroyed the building. All employees were safely evacuated.
Burma’s military said the prison fire was caused by a homemade bomb that had been hidden on a roof.
The prison explosion was one of the deadliest attacks in Burma’s history. At least eight people died, including five security guards, in the prison attack, according to Burma’s military.
At least 20 people were injured when a fire ripped through a school on the outskirts of Mandalay City on Saturday, and some of the wounded were in critical condition, according to a fire official.
Burma had not suffered a massive terrorist attack since a similar explosion struck the capital, Rangoon, in August 1988, when up to 2,000 people were killed, said an official. That blast and several subsequent attacks killed about 300 people, injured 350, and turned the streets of Rangoon into a battleground during the next 36 hours.
A bomb went off in the village of Taungoo, 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Mandalay on Wednesday, killing a police officer. The officer was the first casualty in what appeared to be the latest round of unrest in Burma, which faces a series of protests against years of government crackdowns against the country’s ethnic militant group the Rohingya.
President Thein Sein, speaking at the time, denied the protests were terror attacks or a sign of anger over the government’s repressive policies and lack of democratic freedoms.
“The attacks being launched against the state institutions and police are not the response of a sane and rational man,” he said.
Burma’s parliament is currently considering a bill to extend the country’s state of emergency, which was declared after a series of attacks by the