'al Qaeda adopting LTTE for spreading terror'

London, Sep 24: By triggering Saturday's bomb blast with the help of a truck-load of explosives, al Qaeda has shown that it was following LTTE's modus operandi, as far as spreading terror was concerned, a Sri Lankan defence spokesman said.

He said that there was a constant sharing of technology between terrorist groups, and that terrorism experts had previously indicated that the use of suicide jackets by al Qaeda was also pioneered by the LTTE. The LTTE had first carried out a similar suicide attack in 1996 on Colombo's Central Bank using a truck bomb. al Qaeda had borrowed the idea of the massive truck bombing at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Daily Times quoted Keheliya Rambukwella, the spokesman, as saying.

Addressing a press conference at the Sri Lankan High Commission at Hyde Park Gardens, Rambukwella said, "The Pakistani bomb is very similar in style to Colombo's Central Bank truck bomb [in 1996], which was only lesser in strength."

Both attacks were massive truck bombs involving suicide bombers, he said and added that the Colombo bombing by the LTTE had claimed 91 lives, while 53 people died in the Marriott Hotel attack.

ANI