{"id":87666,"date":"2019-04-25T14:50:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T21:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87666"},"modified":"2019-04-25T14:50:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T21:50:59","slug":"sri-lanka-attacks-could-this-photo-be-evidence-of-failed-mission-by-bomber-with-uk-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/25\/sri-lanka-attacks-could-this-photo-be-evidence-of-failed-mission-by-bomber-with-uk-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka attacks: Could this photo be evidence of failed mission by bomber with UK links?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor Courtesy Sky News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed has a rucksack, thought to contain explosives, and a suitcase at a Colombo hotel before the attacks.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650271-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650271-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650271-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650271-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650271.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Image:Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed pictured at the Taj hotel in Colombo\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A photograph has been obtained by Sky News which, according to a security source, is of the suspected Sri Lanka suicide bomber who studied in Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/fresh-details-emerge-on-sri-lanka-bomber-who-studied-in-uk-11703183\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed<\/strong><\/a>, 36, is bearded with a rucksack, thought to contain explosives, and a suitcase at the Taj hotel in Colombo on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is wearing a baseball cap just like two other suspected bombers pictured on CCTV footage before they struck the Shangri-La hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seven other bombers exploded themselves in a coordinated strike against churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only he didn&#8217;t, and instead blew himself up hours later at a low-grade guesthouse on the outskirts of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Security officials say something went wrong with the detonation charge so he left the five-star hotel frustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe width=\"4\" height=\"4\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/19\/04\/768x432\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650269.jpg?bypass-service-worker&amp;20190425185012\" alt=\"Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed\"\/><figcaption>Image:Mohamed at a mosque before he killed himself in a guesthouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One source said he changed his clothes, swapping a striped shirt for a white, short sleeved one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then caught a rickshaw to travel to the Dehiwala area where he checked into the Tropical Inn at around 9.30am, just after the mass bombings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sumith Vijelal, the manager of the guesthouse, said the driver of the rickshaw was a friend of his and claimed he brought Mohamed to him as a favour to find him a guest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He revealed this driver has since been taken in for questioning by the police but claimed he thought he would be released soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mohamed asked for a room with a lock, before dumping his bags and leaving, according to Mr Vijelal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sources said he visited a local mosque. Another photograph is said by a security source to be of him at the mosque, wearing a white shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then returned to the hotel at around 1.30pm, went into his room and about eight minutes later, blew himself up, the manager said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/19\/04\/768x432\/skynews-abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed_4650276.jpg?bypass-service-worker&amp;20190425185830\" alt=\"Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed\"\/><figcaption>Image:Mohamed in an ID photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The blast killed a man and woman staying in a room next door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It reduced the one-storey building to rubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mohamed &#8211; who has also been pictured in an ID photo &#8211; was already under police monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has two passports and travelled widely, possibly even spending time in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sky News has obtained exclusive details of some of his foreign travel when he may have been radicalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The suspect made his first known trip to the UK on 1 January 2006 to study aeronautical engineering at Kingston University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then returned to Sri Lanka via the Maldives in September the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He went back to Britain in 2008. Security officials are looking into his movements and any extremist links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the next four years he jumped between Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Islamic State is known to have a presence in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has been revealed that he did a postgraduate degree in Australia at some point. He is also reported to be married and with children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When and how he became radicalised is under investigation as well as why he chose to bring terror to an obscure street on the outskirts of Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor Courtesy Sky News Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed has a rucksack, thought to contain explosives, and a suitcase at a Colombo hotel before the attacks. Image:Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed pictured at the Taj hotel in Colombo A photograph has been obtained by Sky News which, according to a security source, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}