The investigation into the bombings on Sunday in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people entered a fourth day on Wednesday. While information continues to emerge, some basic questions remain unanswered.
What we know about the investigation
• The suicide bombers who struck churches and hotels were all well-educated, middle-class Sri Lankans, officials said on Wednesday. There were nine of them — eight men and one woman — including the man described as the leader of the homegrown, militant Islamist group said to have carried out the attack.
• Indian intelligence officials warned their Sri Lankan counterparts of the attack hours before the first bomb was detonated, but the Sri Lankans failed to act. It was the last in a series of unheeded alerts, including an intelligence memo written at least 10 days before the bombings that warned of attacks on churches.
• In response to the intelligence lapse, Sri Lanka’s president asked two top national security officials to step down on Wednesday. President Maithripala Sirisena requested the resignations of Hemasiri Fernando, the defense secretary, and Pujith Jayasundara, the inspector general of police, according to a senior official at the president’s office.
• There is a danger of more bombings, officials have warned, as the police continue to find explosives. The American ambassador said investigators believed there were “ongoing terrorist plots,” and Sri Lankan officials have said they are still searching for people believed to be linked to the attacks.
• The government has blamed the group National Thowheeth Jama’ath for the attacks and said it received foreign assistance. On Tuesday, the Islamic State claimed its “fighters” were responsible.
• Sixty people have been arrested in connection with the attacks on Easter Sunday, Ruwan Wijewardene, the country’s state minister of defense, said on Wednesday.
• More than 350 people were killed, including at least 45 children, and about 500 were wounded. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, and included people worshiping at Easter services.
• Sri Lankan officials said on Tuesday that 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 underway for several years.
• 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
• Sri Lankan officials have yet to confirm if the so-called leader killed in the attack was Mohamad Zaharan, the radical Muslim lecturer mentioned in a security memo as the head of National Thowheeth Jama’ath, which is believed to have organized the bombings.
• 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 60 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.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-news.html
2019-04-24 11:22:58Z
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