Responsibility
On 26 July 2008, an alleged video of a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party, claimed to have carried out bomb attacks on the buses in Kunming, along with an attack in May 2008 in Shanghai. The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, claimed the group released a video entitled Our Blessed Jihad in Yunnan. In it, the group's leader, Commander Seyfullah, claimed credit for several attacks and threatened this month's Olympics. "Despite the Turkestan Islamic Party's repeated warnings to China and international community about stopping the 29th Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese have haughtily ignored our warnings," IntelCenter quoted him as saying. "The Turkestan Islamic Party volunteers who had gone through special preparations have started urgent actions."
However, China's foreign ministry said that it examined IntelCenter's claims and dismissed the claims, concluding that the group was not behind the attack.
Security is tight ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and security personnel have trained for many terrorist attack scenarios, and anti-aircraft missiles has been positioned outside the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Olympic Village.
After a premature bombing of Salvador's Cafe (a popular cafe and restaurant amongst expats) on Christmas Eve that year failed to kill anyone but injured the bomber, Police interrogated the man responsible, Li Yan, and determined that he was also behind the bus bombings over the summer. The bomber died of his injuries.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Kunming Bus Bombings