Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Tuesday that he expects to change the heads of the defense¹ forces within the next 24 hours.

 

斯里兰卡总统迈特里帕拉·西里塞纳周二表示，未来24小时内国防部长被撤职。

 

In a special address to the nation which was shown on television, Sirisena said he will also completely restructure the police and security forces in the coming weeks and admitted that there had been lapses² on the part of the defense authorities.

 

He said although there had been prior intelligence reports about these attacks, he was not informed about them.

 

"The security officials who got the intelligence report from a foreign nation did not share it with me. Appropriate actions would have been taken. I have decided³ to take stern action against these officials," he said.

 

The president said that they had already received international assistance to conduct a thorough probe into the attacks and assured that all steps would be taken to curb⁴ terrorism in Sri Lanka.

 

He offered his condolences to the victims and called for unity⁵ to prevail in the island country.

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