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3 Arrested for Burma Bombings


Burmese authorities have arrested three men in connection with a series of bombings and attempted bombings around the country that have killed two people since late last week.

A lieutenant colonel of police in Rangoon says the three suspects were identified from images recorded by surveillance cameras.



"One was arrested in [southeastern Mon State] by the Rangoon police force," the police officer told VOA's Burmese service Tuesday. He said the other two suspects were arrested in Rangoon's suburbs.

The lieutenant colonel, who declined to be identified, said the three men are suspects in most of the bombing incidents, but investigations are continuing.

The men in custody were not named, and there is no word on a motive for the attacks. No group or individuals claimed responsibility for the incidents, which include a blast in Rangoon that wounded an American woman in her hotel room late Monday.

Officials also reported two explosions Tuesday in Sagaing in central Burma, in a guest house and a parking lot near a pagoda. No one was injured.



Burmese authorities said the American woman was injured when a small time bomb went off in her room at Rangoon's prestigious Traders Hotel. She was taken to Bangkok for medical treatment, and her wounds were described as non-life threatening.

Earlier Monday, police said found at least two unexploded bombs in Rangoon and Mandalay.

The two deaths took place on Friday when an explosion ripped through a guesthouse in the town of Taungoo, about 200 kilometers north of Rangoon. Two blasts in Rangoon on Sunday injured several people.

Burmese authorities are asking the public to report any suspicious packages.

Bomb explosions, many of them minor, were frequent during the decades when Burma was tightly controlled by military rulers. Such incidents have become rare during the two years since Burma began restoring democratic rule.

(This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Burmese service.)
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