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.
What we know about the investigation
•
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.
What we know about who was killed and where
• The death toll rose to at least 359. Unicef, the United Nations children agency, said at least 45 of those killed were children.
•
The attacks took place at three churches and three hotels on Easter
morning in three separate cities across the island. Two more explosions
happened in the afternoon in and around Colombo, one at a small
guesthouse and the other at what was the suspects’ apparent safe house.
Three officers searching for the attackers were killed in that blast.
•
The deadliest explosion was at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, about
20 miles north of Colombo, where more than 100 were killed.
•
At least 28 people were killed at the Zion Church in Batticaloa, on the
other side of the island on its eastern coast. St. Anthony’s Shrine, a
Roman Catholic church in Colombo, was also attacked, with an unknown
number of dead. Witnesses described “a river of blood” there.
• The three hotels attacked, all in Colombo, were the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.
•
People from more than a dozen foreign countries were killed, along with
many Sri Lankans. Several of the victims were Americans, the
authorities said. Others were Australian, British, Chinese, Dutch,
Indian, Portuguese, Japanese and Turkish citizens, according to
officials and news reports.
What we don’t know about the attacks
• How two small, obscure groups — one of which was previously best known for desecrating Buddhist statues — managed to pull off sophisticated, coordinated attacks.
• The extent to which the Islamic State or other international terrorist networks may have helped with the attacks.
• The names of the suicide bombers and the now 100 people being held in connection with the attacks.
•
Why the authorities failed to take substantial steps to try to prevent
an attack after receiving reports of an imminent threat.
•
What effect the failure to stop the attacks will have on Sri Lanka’s
government. The president and the prime minister were already engaged in a bitter feud.
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