Wednesday, 24 April 2019

What We Know and Don’t Know About the Sri Lanka Attacks?

The investigation into a deadly series of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka entered a fourth day on Wednesday. While new information continues to emerge about the bombings, some basic questions remain unanswered.

• One of the suicide bombers who killed more than 300 people in coordinated attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday was a woman, the authorities said on Wednesday, revising the total number of attackers tied to a Muslim extremist organization to nine from eight.
• The government said Wednesday that it had arrested more than 50 people in connection with the attacks, all of them Sri Lankans. The government has blamed the group National Thowheeth Jama’ath for the attacks, and on Wednesday said it was likely that the group’s leader was among those who blew themselves up.
• The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed more than 350 people and wounded about 500.

The victims came from more than a dozen countries, and included worshipers at Easter services.
• A cabinet member on Tuesday said the bombings may have been in retaliation for attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March. On Wednesday, a government minister and former army chief said planning may have been several years in the making.
• The United States Embassy confirmed that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were in Sri Lanka to assist.

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