2019 Sri Lanka bombings

I'm still kinda shook about the fact that Obama, Hillary and Left Inc. all in sync decided to call the event an attack on "Easter Worshipers".
Yes - expressly failing to indicate Christian rather than "Easter Worshipers" is more than a little telling. Christianity is definitely in the cross-hairs of the NWO global elite. What bothers me, too, is that indicating "Easter Worshipers" may be more than just denying the faith of Christians, but maybe a backhanded insult regarding Easter itself - that it's really a pagan worship and a bogus Christian event!

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter
[...]
Most historians, including Biblical scholars, agree that Easter was originally a pagan festival. According to the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary: “The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastra, the goddess of spring, in whose honour sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo–Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.” However, even among those who maintain that Easter has pagan roots, there is some disagreement over which pagan tradition the festival emerged from. Here we will explore some of those perspectives. [emphasis mine]

Resurrection as a Symbol of Rebirth
One theory that has been put forward is that the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection is symbolic of rebirth and renewal and retells the cycle of the seasons, the death and return of the sun.

According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.

After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.

inanna-descent.jpg

The Descent of Inanna.

Dr Nugent is quick to point out that drawing parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of Inanna “doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.”
[emphasis mine]

The Sumerian goddess Inanna is known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, "Ishtar". In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians identified the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. The temple was torn down and the So Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, the holiest church in the Christian world.

Dr Nugent points out that the story of Inanna and Damuzi is just one of a number of accounts of dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. For example, the resurrection of Egyptian Horus; the story of Mithras, who was worshipped at Springtime; and the tale of Dionysus, resurrected by his grandmother. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil.

Easter as a celebration of the Goddess of Spring
A related perspective is that, rather than being a representation of the story of Ishtar, Easter was originally a celebration of Eostre, goddess of Spring, otherwise known as Ostara, Austra, and Eastre. One of the most revered aspects of Ostara for both ancient and modern observers is a spirit of renewal.

Celebrated at Spring Equinox on March 21, Ostara marks the day when light is equal to darkness, and will continue to grow. As the bringer of light after a long dark winter, the goddess was often depicted with the hare, an animal that represents the arrival of spring as well as the fertility of the season.

According to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie, the idea of resurrection was ingrained within the celebration of Ostara: “Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the christian’s God.”

Most analyses of the origin of the word ‘Easter’ agree that it was named after Eostre, an ancient word meaning ‘spring’, though many European languages use one form or another of the Latin name for Easter, Pascha, which is derived from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover.

Easter and Its Connection to Passover
Easter is associated with the Jewish festival of Passover through its symbolism and meaning, as well as its position in the calendar. Some early Christians chose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the same date as Passover, which reflects Easter having entered Christianity during its earliest Jewish period. Evidence of a more developed Christian festival of Easter emerged around the mid-second century.

In 325 AD, Emperor Constantine convened a meeting of Christian leaders to resolve important disputes at the Council of Nicaea. Since the church believed that the resurrection took place on a Sunday, the Council determined that Easter should always fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Easter has since remained without a fixed date but proximate to the full moon, which coincided with the start of Passover.

While there are distinct differences between the celebrations of Pesach and Easter, both festivals celebrate rebirth – in Christianity through the resurrection of Jesus, and in Jewish traditions through the liberation of the Israelites from slavery.

The Origins of Easter customs
The most widely-practiced customs on Easter Sunday relate to the symbol of the rabbit (‘Easter bunny’) and the egg. As outlined previously, the rabbit was a symbol associated with Eostre, representing the beginning of Springtime. Likewise, the egg has come to represent Spring, fertility and renewal. In Germanic mythology, it is said that Ostara healed a wounded bird she found in the woods by changing it into a hare. Still partially a bird, the hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts.

The Encyclopedia Britannica clearly explains the pagan traditions associated with the egg: “The egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who had also the custom of colouring and eating eggs during their spring festival.” In ancient Egypt, an egg symbolised the sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates.

So where did the tradition of an egg-toting Easter Bunny come from? The first reference can be found in a German text dating to 1572 AD: “Do not worry if the Easter Bunny escapes you; should we miss his eggs, we will cook the nest,” the text reads. But it wasn’t until the tradition made its way to the United States via the arrival of German immigrants, that the custom took on its current form. By the end of the 19th century, shops were selling rabbit-shaped candies, which later became the chocolate bunnies we have today, and children were being told the story of a rabbit that delivers baskets of eggs, chocolate and other candy on Easter morning.

In many Christian traditions, the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead, showing that life could win over death. For Christians, the egg is a symbol of the tomb in which the body of Jesus was placed, while cracking the egg represents Jesus' resurrection. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross.

Regardless of the very ancient origins of the symbol of the egg, most people agree that nothing symbolizes renewal more perfectly than the egg – round, endless, and full of the promise of life.

While many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of Spring were at one stage practised alongside Christian Easter traditions, they eventually came to be absorbed within Christianity, as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus.
The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox. [emphasis mine]

Whether it is observed as a religious holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or a time for families in the northern hemisphere to enjoy the coming of Spring and celebrate with egg decorating and Easter bunnies, the celebration of Easter still retains the same spirit of rebirth and renewal, as it has for thousands of years.

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter
Is there any doubt that the psychopaths/satanists hate Christians? Just a coincidence that attacks have occurred either on or close to the two most holy Christian observances - Sandy Hook Dec. 14th / Christmas season in full swing! Stop celebrating and start grieving the brutal massacre of twenty first-grade children! Same with this latest attack - stop celebrating and start grieving! Loosh aplenty - for their gods!
 
I'm still kinda shook about the fact that Obama, Hillary and Left Inc. all in sync decided to call the event an attack on "Easter Worshipers". Wonder where that directive came from. Some dastardly PR firm would be the least nasty source. The language these psychopaths create around these attacks is disorienting and inhuman.

I'm not surprised at all. People get so caught up with labels as well as their emotional reaction to atrocities, they fail to see the planning and intent behind it. Extreme violence in Sri Lanka, against Christians, 10 years after a civil war? That's just not normal. I'm just wondering where the 'direction, funding and support' for these terrorist attacks comes from? I wouldn't be surprised if the same people were behind terrorist attacks every where.

Obama, Hillary and Co. can not afford to put a foot wrong with what they say. As we all know, the price of being 'politically incorrect' is far worse for them than any wrong doing. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't up to their necks in what ever's going on. Playing both sides of course. And right now they have to be VERY careful what they say, as their control isn't absolute, yet.
 
The Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena should be made to "step down from Office" - he was informed by intelligence on April 4 and April 20 that a possible terrorist attack on Churches, etc. was being planned and President Sirisena just happened to be out of the Country, the day the attacks were executed.

Sri Lankan intelligence officials were tipped off about an imminent attack by Islamist militants hours before a series of suicide bombings killed more than 300 people on Easter Sunday, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Exclusive: Sri Lanka warned of threat hours before suicide attacks - sources
A woman reacts during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
A woman reacts during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Three churches and four hotels were hit by suicide bombers on Sunday morning, killing 321 people and wounding 500, sending shockwaves through an island state that has been relatively peaceful since a civil war ended a decade ago.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Tuesday, without providing evidence of its involvement.

Indian intelligence officers contacted their Sri Lankan counterparts two hours before the first attack to warn of a specific threat on churches,
one Sri Lankan defense source and an Indian government source said.

Another Sri Lankan defense source said a warning came “hours before” the first strike. One of the Sri Lankan sources said a warning was also sent by the Indians on Saturday night. The Indian government source said similar messages had been given to Sri Lankan intelligence agents on April 4 and April 20.

Sri Lanka’s presidency and the Indian foreign ministry both did not respond to requests for comment.

Sri Lanka PM not alerted to warning of attack because of feud: minister
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe speaks to media at St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019 in this still image obtained from a video. Derana TV/via Reuters TV
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe speaks to media at St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019 in this still image obtained from a video. Derana TV/via Reuters TV

A rift between Sri Lanka's president and prime minister, which sparked a crisis last year, came under scrutiny on Monday a day after a series of deadly bomb blasts, with questions over how the government handled a recent warning of an attack.

The premier has been kept out of intelligence briefings since he fell out with the president, a government minister said,
a day after Easter attacks on churches and hotels killed 290 people and wounded nearly 500.

Police had been warned this month about a possible attack on churches by a little-known domestic Islamist group,

But Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had not been told of the report, dated April 11, that said a foreign intelligence agency had warned of attacks on churches by a domestic militant group called the National Thawheed Jama’ut, Health Minister Rajith Senaratne told reporters.


It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response to the tip-off.

“When we asked about the intelligence report, the prime minister was not aware of this,” said Senaratne, who also briefs reporters on the deliberations of the cabinet.

It was not clear if the president, Maithripala Sirisena, was aware of the report but the top security organization, the Security Council, reports to him, while the prime minister was no longer invited to council meetings because of the rift, Senaratne said.

The president was out of the country when the bombers struck. His office declined to comment.

“As a government we have to say very, very sorry and we have to apologize to the families and their institutions about this incident,” said Senaratne.


The president fired Wickremesinghe last October over political differences, only to reinstate him weeks later under pressure from the Supreme Court.

Their relationship has not improved and their differences have delayed government decisions, politicians say.

On Sunday, with the president on a foreign trip and the country shaken by the suicide attacks, Wickremesinghe called a Security Council meeting but its members failed to show up, Senaratne said.

“This is the first time in history we have seen that the Security Council refused to come for a meeting with the country’s prime minister,” he said.


On Monday, Wickremesinghe attended a council meeting called by Sirisena after his return. It was the prime minister’s first council meeting since the political crisis, his office said.

Senaratne said security forces had raided training sites of the National Thawheed Jama’ut. The government also believed there were international links to the attacks. “We don’t think a small organization can do all that.

We are now investigating international support for them and their other links - how they produced the suicide bombers and bombs like this,” he said.

Trump pledges support for bringing Sri Lanka bombing perpetrators to justice
U.S. President Donald Trump pledged American support to Sri Lanka in bringing the perpetrators of a coordinated bombing attack "to justice" during a call with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a White House spokesman said on Monday.

Sri Lanka detains Syrian for questioning over attacks: sources
Sri Lankan police are holding a Syrian national in custody for questioning over the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, three government and military sources told Reuters on Tuesday. “The terrorist investigation division of the police arrested a Syrian national following the attacks for interrogation,” a source said. Two other officials with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the detention.
“He was arrested after interrogation of local suspects,” a second source said.

Islamic State claims responsibility for Sri Lanka bombings

Islamic state has claimed responsibility for coordinated bombings in Sri Lanka which killed 321 people and injured about 500 others,
the group's AMAQ news agency said on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka PM believes attacks had Islamic State links

A coffin of a victim is carried during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, at a cemetery near St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Sri Lanka's prime minister said on Tuesday said he believed the Easter day attacks had links to Islamic State, after the militant group claimed responsibility for the bombings in which more than 300 were killed.

Sri Lanka blasts were revenge for New Zealand mosque killings: minister
People attend a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
Devastating Easter bombings in Sri Lanka were retaliation for attacks on mosques in New Zealand, a Sri Lankan official said
on Tuesday, as Islamic State claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts that killed 321 people.

FBI assisting Sri Lanka authorities with probe of bomb attacks: FBI
A coffin of a victim is carried, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019.   REUTERS/Thomas Peter
The FBI is assisting Sri Lankan authorities with their investigation of the bomb attacks over the Easter weekend on three churches and four hotels, a spokeswoman for the U.S. law enforcement agency said on Tuesday.

'We are shell shocked': Relatives bury dead in Sri Lanka amid new security fears
Sri Lankans wept and prayed on Tuesday as they buried their dead from suicide bomb attacks on churches holding Easter services and luxury hotels that killed 321 people in the country's worst violence in a decade.
 
"“The security officials who got the intelligence report from a foreign nation did not share it with me." (I do not believe HIM!)

Sri Lanka president to change defense heads after attacks
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena prays during a special party convention in Colombo, Sri Lanka December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday said he expects to change the heads of the country’s defense forces within a day following their failure to prevent suicide bombs that killed over 300 people, despite the fact they had prior information about the attacks.

“I will completely restructure the police and security forces in the coming weeks. I expect to change the heads of defense establishments within next 24 hours,” Sirisena said a televised address to the nation.

“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 decided to take stern action against these officials.”

Islamic State claims Sri Lanka blasts, as government says probe making progress

A suspected suicide bomber enters St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 21, 2019 in this still image taken from a CCTV handout footage of Easter Sunday attacks released on April 23, 2019. CCTV/Siyatha News via REUTERS
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed 321 people in what officials believe was retaliation for assaults on mosques in New Zealand.


Christchurch attack survivors offered New Zealand residency
New Zealand will grant permanent residency to all survivors of the mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques in which 50 Muslim worshippers were killed, it said on Tuesday.
 
ISIS Easter Attack: Going Beyond Condemnation

It seems clear that the extremist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has masterminded the attacks. Of some 35 persons arrested so far, all are Muslims save a Tamil driver. Jaffna-based reporters working on the story say some have been trained in the UK. Five are Pakistanis. One captured in Jaffna yesterday had a Pakistani flag tattoo on his body – it is said that the bomb he was to expode did not go off. As I write (4:30 pm 22 April, 2019), there has been another bomb in Kotahena – apparently it was set for yesterday in a car, and when it did not go off they had tried to remove it and it exploded during that process.

M.A. Sumanthiran, MP, is quoted in today’s Uthayan newspaper as saying on the authority of the Inspector General of Police that it is ISIS that was behind the attacks. The evidence we have seen so far supports that position.
 

Photoshop.....?

000_1FV4GT-800x437.jpg

New York Times
An image grab taken from a press release issued on April 23, 2019 by the Islamic State (IS) group's propaganda agency Amaq, allegedly shows eight men it said carried out a string of deadly suicide bomb blasts on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, lined up at an undisclosed location. The man in the centre is belived to be Zahran Hashmi, who was identified by the Sri Lankan police as the leader of the Islamist National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group, which Colombo has blamed for the attacks. - The Islamic State group claimed a series of bombings on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people on April 21, and released the photo of the men it said were behind the "blessed attack", describing them as "fighters" from the terror network. The massive casualty toll would make the Easter attacks the deadliest overseas operation claimed by IS since the group proclaimed its worldwide caliphate in mid-2014

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CCTV video shows suspected suicide bomber entering St Sebastian's Church in Negombo

CCTV video shows suspected suicide bomber entering St Sebastian's Church in Negombo

A suspected suicide bomber carries a backpack on a street in Negombo, Sri Lanka

A suspected suicide bomber carries a backpack on a street in Negombo, Sri Lanka

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Isil claims Sri Lanka attack as prime minister says there are militants with explosives on the run
Isil claims Sri Lanka attack as prime minister says there are militants with explosives on the run

Sri Lanka's prime minister has warned there are more explosives and militants "out there" Ranil Wickremesinghe made the comment Tuesday at a news conference, and said some officials will likely lose their jobs over intelligence lapses surrounding the attack.

His warning came as Islamic State claimed responsibility for the terror attack on its official Amaq news agency.

The group posted an image of seven masked attackers and the unmasked ringleader, Zahran Hashim, in front of its black flag. In a statement the men were named as Abu Ubaida - thought to refer to Hashim - Abu Khalil, Abu Hamza, Abu al-Baraa, Abu Muhammad, Abu Abdulla and Abu al-Mukhtar.

Sri Lanka's defence minister on Tuesday declared the attacks were retaliation for a recent attack on mosques in New Zealand, adding that two domestic Islamist groups were believed to be responsible.

Ruwan Wijewardene’s comments were made as the South Asian island held its first mass funeral for about 30 of the victims of Sunday’s serial suicide bombings in three high profile churches and three luxury hotels.

Sri Lankan intelligence has named the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday attacks as Moulvi Zahran Hashim, an extremist local cleric who incited his followers to violence with fiery sermons on his social media channels. Isil's brief statement said they targeted “nationals of the Crusader alliance and Christians”,
but made no specific reference to the New Zealand mosque attacks.
At the same time, AFP agency reported that two Muslim brothers carried out two of the hotel suicide blasts.

The brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader, blew themselves up as guests queued for breakfast at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the capital Colombo.

The brothers, whose names have not been revealed, were in their late twenties and operated their own "family cell", an investigation officer said.

The Sri Lankan government revealed in 2016 that 32 Sri Lanka Muslims had travelled to Syria to join Isil.

“All these (Muslims) are not from ordinary families. These people are from the families which are considered as well-educated and elite,” Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the country’s Justice Minister told parliament. said, adding that the government was aware of some foreigners coming to Sri Lanka to spread what he called Islamic extremism.

A Syrian national was also arrested on Tuesday. It was not yet clear if he played a role in the attacks.

Mr Wijewardene told the Sri Lankan parliament the massacre was carried out by the obscure local National Thawheed Jamaath group along with another group called the JMI, an apparent reference to a little-known radical Islamist group in India called the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.

Some experts have pointed out that the sophisticated nature of the attacks suggest that they would have required preparation that began before the Christchurch atrocity.

Little is known about JMI, other than reports it was established last year and is affiliated to a similarly named group in Bangladesh.

"The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch," said Mr Wijewardene.

Fifty people were killed in shooting attacks on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15, and horrific footage of the bloodbath was livestreamed on social media channels.

The Sri Lankan authorities are still investigating how local militants gained the training and equipment to carry out an assault that is now considered to be one of the worst global terrorist atrocities since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

One theory is that Sri Lankan extremists could have been assisted by returning fighters from Iraq and Syria.

It also emerged on Tuesday that Sri Lankan police are holding a Syrian national in custody for questioning over the Easter Sunday attacks.

"The terrorist investigation division of the police arrested a Syrian national following the attacks for interrogation," a source told Reuters. Two other officials with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the detention. "He was arrested after interrogation of local suspects," a second source said.

Police have now detained 40 suspects in connection with the attack.

The first mass funeral took place at St Sebastian church in Negombo, north of Colombo, which was one of the places targeted in Sunday's blasts.

A moment of silence was observed at 08:30, to mark the timing of the first bomb on Sunday morning. Flags were lowered to half-mast and people, many of them in tears, bowed their heads in respect.

Published on Apr 23, 2019 (3:44 min.)

India’s security services have said they shared intelligence on a possible attack, including naming some of the bombing suspects, more than two weeks before Easter Sunday and again in the hours before the attack took place.

Sri Lanka attackers had been planning massacre for at least three months

Sri Lanka attackers had been planning massacre for at least three months
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The terror cell behind the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka had been preparing to carry out the attacks for at least three months, authorities have said, as the death toll rose to 359 including 39 foreign nationals.

At a news conference on Wednesday in the capital Colombo, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 60 people had been arrested on suspicion of links to the attacks, and that 32 were being interrogated by the central Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Authorities believe the attackers used two safe houses to prepare for the attacks, one of which was in the town of Negombo where possibly the deadliest bombing took place, on St Sebastian’s church.

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Gunasekara said these safe houses had been occupied by the suicide bombers for “at least two to three months”.

Also on Wednesday, police said there had been at least nine suicide bombers involved in the Easter Sunday attacks, eight of whom had been identified by investigators.

One of the bombers was the wife of another attacker, the police spokesman said, and blew herself up using a suicide vest as officers raided a home in the suburb of Dematagoda owned by a prominent Muslim spice trader, identified as Mr Ibrahim. Mr Ibrahim was in police custody, police said.

Almost all the attackers appeared to be from well-respected, educated, upper middle class families, Mr Wijewardene said.

Some had studied abroad, including one who received an undergraduate degree in the UK and a postgraduate education in Australia before returning to Sri Lanka.

“We are talking about a group that was well educated, mostly middle class and stable financially,” the minister said.

As a clearer picture continued to emerge of the scale of the operation behind the bombings, Mr Wijewardene again admitted that it had been a “major lapse” on the part of the security and intelligence agencies. “The intelligence had been shared with the right people. This could have been averted or at least minimized,” he said.

In an address to the nation on Tuesday night, President Maithripala Sirisena said the warnings of an imminent attack had not been shared with his office. The president - whose executive powers include responsibility for defence and security - said some heads of major agencies would be sacked and replaced in the coming days.

ISIS Takes Responsibility for Sri Lanka Bombings, Release Photos of Suicide Bombers April 23, 2019 (Photo - Video)
ISIS Takes Responsibility for Sri Lanka Bombings, Release Photos of Suicide Bombers
“The group said the attackers targeted citizens of the US-led coalition fighting IS and referred to Easter as an ‘infidel holiday.'
In the video, the seven suicide bombers stand in front of the ISIS flag and swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the terrorist group’s leader. The FBI joined the investigation while Sri Lanka’s government has faced criticism for not acting on numerous warnings over the terrorist attack.

Published on Apr 21, 2019 (13:11 min.)

Published on Apr 21, 2019 (23:41 min.) Live footage.
Sri Lanka's police chief made a nationwide alert that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches" in the country.

Published on Apr 22, 2019 (8:04 min.) Footage of arrests.

Published on Apr 23, 2019 (8:44 min.) No English subtitles. Raw feed.
 
Sri Lanka attack death toll between 250-260, not 359: officials
Friends and relatives carry the coffin of eight-month-old Mathew, who died during a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, at his funeral in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
The death toll in Sri Lanka's Easter Day attack is around 100 fewer than the 359 originally thought, a two top government officials told Reuters on Thursday.

Blast in town east of Sri Lankan capital, no casualties
Police investigators work at the site of a blast behind the magistrates court in the town of Pugoda, 40 km (25 miles) east of the capital Colombo, Sri Lanka April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
An explosion occurred in a town east of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on Thursday but there were no casualties, a police spokesman said.

Security alert at Sri Lanka central bank lifted: sources
Sri Lankan authorities lifted a security alert at the central bank in the capital Colombo on Thursday after it was locked down following a warning about an impending explosion, two bank sources said.

U.S.'s Pompeo says 'every indication' Islamic State inspired Sri Lanka attacks: CBS
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at a warehouse where international humanitarian aid for Venezuela is being stored, near La Unidad cross-border bridge between Colombia and Venezuela in Cucuta, Colombia April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a television interview on Wednesday there was "every indication" that Sunday's bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed 359 people were inspired by Islamic State.

Sri Lanka's crisis of leadership opens space for nationalist Rajapaksas
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lanka's newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa gestures during the ceremony to assume duties at the Prime Minister's office in Colombo, Sri Lanka October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo
Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, then the defense secretary, crushed Tamil Tiger separatists with such ferocity ten years ago that Western powers sought war crime trials against them and greeted their defeat in elections later with barely concealed glee.
 
Sri Lankan police are trying to track down 140 people believed linked to Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings of churches and hotels that killed 253 people, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday.

April 26, 2019 - Sri Lankan police hunt 140 people after Easter bombings
A security officer stands guard outside St. Anthony's Shrine, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

A security officer stands guard outside St. Anthony's Shrine, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Muslims in Sri Lanka were urged to pray at home and not after the State Intelligence Services warned of possible car bomb attacks, amid fears of retaliatory violence.

The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka also urged its citizens to avoid places of worship over the weekend after authorities reported there could be more attacks targeting religious centers.

Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told reporters he had seen a leaked internal security document warning of further attacks on churches and there would be no Catholic masses this Sunday anywhere on the island.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers were deployed across the Indian Ocean island state to carry out searches and provide security for religious centers, the military said on Friday.

The All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ullama, Sri Lanka’s main Islamic religious body, urged Muslims to conduct prayers at home in case “there is a need to protect family and properties”.

Authorities have so far focused their investigations on international links to two domestic Islamist groups - National Thawheed Jama’ut and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim - they believe carried out the attacks.


Government officials have acknowledged a major lapse in not widely sharing an intelligence warning from India before the attacks.

Sirisena said top defense and police chiefs had not shared information with him about the impending attacks. Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando resigned over the failure to prevent the attacks. “The police chief said he will resign now,” Sirisena said.

He blamed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government for weakening the intelligence system by focusing on the prosecution of military officers over alleged war crimes during a decade-long civil war with Tamil separatists that ended in 2009.

Sirisena fired Wickremesinghe in October over political differences, only to reinstate him weeks later under pressure from the Supreme Court.


Opposing factions aligned to Wickremesinghe and Sirisena have often refused to communicate with each other and blame any setbacks on their opponents, government sources say.

Cardinal Ranjith said that the church had been kept in the dark about intelligence warning of attacks.“We didn’t know anything. It came as a thunderbolt for us,” he said.

Fears of retaliatory sectarian violence have already caused Muslim communities to flee their homes amid bomb scares, lockdowns and security sweeps.

Guarded by soldiers, defiant Sri Lankan Muslims pray for peace
Muslims attend their Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
As the Islamic call to prayer echoed through the subdued streets of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, crowds of Muslims were greeted with an unusual sight: their golden-domed Mosque flanked by soldiers armed with assault rifles.

Sri Lanka revises death toll from attacks down by 100
A soldier stands guard at St. Anthony's Shrine during heavy rain, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Sri Lankan officials revised the death toll from Easter Sunday bombings down by about 100 on Thursday, blaming the difficulty in identifying body parts at bomb scenes for the earlier inaccurate number.

The new official figure was 253, down from an earlier 359, Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said. He blamed inaccurate data provided by morgues for the discrepancy.

Anil Jasinghe, the director general of Sri Lanka’s health services, told Reuters any figure was an estimate: “It could be 250 or 260. I can’t exactly say. There are so many body parts and it is difficult to give a precise figure.”

Slideshow (22 Images)

Sri Lanka revises death toll from attacks down by 100
 
The explosions take place just days after a massive terrorist attack in Colombo, leaving 359 people dead and over 500 injured.
According to News1st media outlet, citing an army representative, three explosions have occurred in the city of Kalmunai in eastern Sri Lanka.

Local media reports, citing police, that the suspects blew themselves up at the begining of a major gunfight when security personnel, including the military, attempted to raid a location believed to have been used for the manufacture of suicide vests.

Security personnel seized clothing and flags linked to Daesh*, 150 gelignite sticks, 100,000 iron balls, drones and at least one suicide vest during a raid in the same locality.

According to the latest information, Sri Lanka's police have arrested over 70 people during massive search operations across the country since April 21, when the island nation had witnessed six blasts in churches and hotels. According to intelligence data, the threat of more terror attacks looms large over Sri Lanka.

 
Zaharan Hashim, a radical Muslim preacher accused of masterminding the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, never hid his hatred.

He railed against a local performance in which Muslim girls dared to dance. When a Muslim politician held a 50th birthday party, he raged about how Western infidel traditions were poisoning his hometown, Kattankudy.

There were, Mr. Zaharan said in one of his online sermons, three types of people: Muslims, those who had reached an accord with Muslims, and “people who need to be killed.”

Idolaters, he added, “need to be slaughtered wherever you see them.”
 
Sri Lanka's former wartime defense chief, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said on Friday he would run for president in elections this year and would stop the spread of Islamist extremism by rebuilding the intelligence service and surveilling citizens.

April 26, 2019 - Exclusive: Sri Lankan ex-defense chief Gotabaya says he will run for president, tackle radical Islam
Sri Lanka's former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake, Sri Lanka April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lanka's former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake, Sri Lanka April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Gotabaya, as he is popularly known, is the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the two led the country to a crushing defeat of separatist Tamil rebels a decade ago after a 26-year civil war.

Gotabaya said the attacks could have been prevented if the island’s current government had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on.


“Because the government was not prepared, that’s why you see a panic situation,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Gotabaya said he would be a candidate “100 percent”, firming up months of speculation that he plans to run in the elections, which are due by December.

He was critical of the government’s response to the bombings. Since the attacks, the government has struggled to provide clear information about how they were staged, who was behind them and how serious the threat is from Islamic State to the country.

“Various people are blaming various people, not giving exactly the details as to what happened, even people expect the names, what organization did this, and how they came up to this level, that explanation was not given,” he said.

On Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena said the government led by premier Ranil Wickremesinghe should take responsibility for the attacks and that prior information warning of attacks was not shared with him.

Wickremesinghe said earlier he was not advised about warnings that came from India’s spy service either, presenting a picture of a government still in disarray since the two leaders fell out last October.

Gotabaya is facing lawsuits in the United States, where he is a dual citizen, over his role in the war and afterwards.

The South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, in partnership with U.S. law firm Hausfeld, filed a civil case in California this month against Gotabaya on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor.

In a separate case, Ahimsa Wickrematunga, the daughter of murdered investigative editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, filed a complaint for damages in the same U.S. District Court in California for allegedly instigating and authorizing the extrajudicial killing of her father.

Gotabaya said the cases were baseless and only a “little distraction” as he prepared for the election campaign. He said he had asked U.S. authorities to renounce his citizenship and that process was nearly done, clearing the way for his candidature.

‘DISMANTLE THE NETWORKS’
He said that if he won, his immediate focus would to be tackle the threat from radical Islam and to rebuild the security set-up.

“It’s a serious problem, you have to go deep into the groups, dismantle the networks,” he said, adding he would give the military a mandate to collect intelligence from the ground and to mount surveillance of groups turning to extremism.

Gotabaya said that a military intelligence cell he had set up in 2011 of 5,000 people, some of them with Arabic language skills and that was tracking the bent towards extremist ideology some of the Islamist groups were taking in eastern Sri Lanka was disbanded by the current government.

“They did not give priority to national security, there was a mix-up. They were talking about ethnic reconciliation, then they were talking about human rights issues, they were talking about individual freedoms,” he said.

President Sirisena’s government sought to forge reconciliation with minority Tamils and close the wounds of the war and launched investigations into allegations of rights abuse and torture against military officers.

Officials said many of these secret intelligence cells were disbanded because they faced allegations of abuse, including torture and extra judicial killings.

Muslims make up nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist.

The Western-educated bomber who botched Sri Lanka hotel attack
A Sri Lankan police officer walks near the motel, where the Australian and British-educated suicide bomber had detonated his device inside, in Dehiwala on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
His target was the breakfast buffet at the Taj Samudra, a luxury hotel on Colombo's seafront. Instead, he ended up detonating his explosive device in a budget motel by the city's zoo, killing a couple who had arrived only half an hour earlier.

Shooting breaks out in eastern Sri Lankan town during police raid
Shooting erupted between security forces and a group of men in eastern Sri Lanka during a search and cordon operation related to the Easter Sunday attacks, a military spokesman said.

The raid took place in the town of Ampara Sainthamaruthu near Batticaloa. The spokesman said there was an explosion in the area and when soldiers went to investigate they were fired upon. No details of casualties were immediately available.
 
He split from the National Thowheed Jamaath and formed his own faction, which experts say was the ‘main player’ in the attacks. Using social media, he spread pro-Daesh propaganda under the banner Al-Ghuraba Media.

April 26, 2019 - How Zahran Hashim went from obscure extremist preacher to the alleged mastermind of the Sri Lanka bombings

How Zahran Hashim went from obscure extremist preacher to the alleged mastermind of the Sri Lanka bombings
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Zahran Hashim was shunned in his Sri Lankan hometown, but found loyal followers online with his divisive message. (Image grab from press release of the Daesh propaganda site Amaq)

Until last Sunday, the only thing Zahran Hashim was known for was being a member of a local Sri Lankan group accused of defacing Buddhist statues.

Now, the obscure radical preacher is believed to be Daesh’s point person in Sri Lanka and the “mastermind” of the coordinated Easter Sunday attacks that have left 359 dead and more than 500 injured.

A video released by Daesh on Tuesday shows seven black-clad, masked men pledging allegiance to the organization, and an eighth man, whose face is visible, leading them. That man is Hashim. Security officials in Sri Lanka claim to have “credible information” that he was planning another attack targeting Muslim shrines that followed the mystical stream of Sufi Islam.

Sri Lanka has no history of Islamist extremism. The Sri Lankan government first named a local militant group, National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), as the main suspect behind the attacks. It is one of the few Islamist radical groups operating in the country and was thus seen as the main contender for involvement with Daesh. Hashim is known to have been a member of the group until at least 2016 when security officials say he left and formed his own faction because the core group disapproved of his increasingly hard-line views.

Hashim was driven out of his hometown Kattankudy in eastern Sri Lanka by townspeople and moderate clerics because of his divisive teachings. Media reports say he received his early schooling in Kattankudy and then traveled to India to start a seven-year course on Islamic theology. He dropped out midway. Since then, he has reportedly traveled frequently between India and Sri Lanka.

Shunned by his hometown and the NTJ, Hashim found a small, but loyal, band of supporters online. Over the past two years, he gained thousands of followers for his impassioned sermons against non-Muslims on YouTube and a Sri Lankan Facebook account, which he called Al-Ghuraba Media and used to spread pro-Daesh propaganda.
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According to Robert Postings, a researcher whose work focuses on Daesh, Hashim had been a supporter of the group at least since 2017, when he began posting pro-Daesh propaganda on Facebook. In many of Hashim’s videos, the backdrop is images of the burning Twin Towers after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

Last year, Hashim appeared on intelligence officials’ radar after several of his students defaced three Buddhist statues in central Sri Lanka. The subsequent investigation led officers to a large weapons cache, including 100 kg of explosives and detonators, on the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka.

Experts say Daesh has been recruiting for years in Sri Lanka and other Asian countries. On the ground, the group seems to have received help from Hashim after he created the Al-Ghuraba group. “That is the Islamic State (Daesh) branch in Sri Lanka,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based expert on militancy in the region.

Experts with knowledge of the investigations said Hashim’s faction of the NTJ was the “main player” in the Easter attacks and that he worked with international support, given the sophistication of the bombings and the fact that foreigners were targeted.

“Most Sri Lankans have not heard about this (National Thowheed Jamath) group before,” said Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. “There is someone behind them, a handler.”

As of Thursday, Daesh had not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility for the attacks, and Sri Lanka’s Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine if it had directly provided training or financing to the bombers. There was no evidence to suggest the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for Daesh, he said..

“There were many people who understandably doubt that the attacks were a purely domestic operation,” said Taylor Dibbert, a Sri Lanka expert and fellow at the Pacific Forum.

“The investigation surrounding intelligence failures and the bombings should be done with significant international assistance. The Sri Lankan government cannot be trusted with this type of thing on its own,” he said.
 
A gun battle between troops and suspected Islamist militants on Sri Lanka's east coast left 15 dead, including six children, a military spokesman said on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people on the island.

April 27, 2019 - Sri Lanka gun battle with militants kills 15, U.S. pulls citizens out
Security personnel seen at the site of an overnight gun battle, between troops and suspected Islamist militants, on the east coast of Sri Lanka, in Kalmunai, April 27, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Security personnel seen at the site of an overnight gun battle, between troops and suspected Islamist militants, on the east coast of Sri Lanka, in Kalmunai, April 27, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

The shootout at a safe house erupted on Friday in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara district, to the south of the Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa, site of one of the Easter Sunday blasts which have been claimed by Islamic State.

A police spokesman said three suspected suicide bombers were among the dead following Friday’s gun battle.

The east coast battle broke out when troops heading toward a suspected militant safe house were repulsed by three explosions and gunfire, military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said.

“Troops retaliated and raided the safe house where a large cache of explosives had been stored,” he said in a statement, adding that the militants were suspected members of the domestic Islamist group National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ), which has been blamed for last Sunday’s attacks.

The U.S. State Department, warning that terrorist groups were continuing to plot attacks, urged citizens to reconsider travel to Sri Lanka and ordered the departure of all school-age family members of U.S. government employees. It also authorized non-emergency employees to leave.

Britain has also warned its nationals to avoid traveling to Sri Lanka unless absolutely necessary.

Slideshow (20 Images)
Sri Lanka gun battle with militants kills 15, U.S. pulls citizens out

Relatives of Sri Lanka suicide bombings mastermind wounded in gunbattle
The wife and a daughter of the suspected mastermind of suicide attacks on churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka were wounded in a gunbattle that erupted following a raid in the east of the country, police and his sister said on Saturday.

Sri Lanka police chief refusing to quit despite president's request: sources
Crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer NO ARCHIVES. NO RESALES.
Sri Lanka's police chief has refused a request by President Maithripala Sirisena to step down following suicide bombings on churches and hotels, two sources at the president's office said on Saturday, deepening the rift at top levels of government.

Sirisena, facing criticism over the failure to thwart the attacks, blamed the inspector general of police Pujith Jayasundara and defense secretary Hemesiri Fernando for not sharing advance warnings of the attacks with him.

Fernando resigned earlier in the week, but Jayasundara was holding on, the two officials said. “He has refused to resign despite the president’s request,” one of the sources said. Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, only parliament can remove the police chief through a lengthy process designed to shield officers from political interference.

Jayasundara, the police chief, was handpicked for the job by Wickremesinghe. The first source at the president’s office said Sirisena was still expecting him to turn in his papers. The second source confirmed the situation.
 
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