Sri Lanka Attacks: What We Know and Don’t Know - The New York Times

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.

Image

Security personnel standing guard at St Anthony’s Church in Colombo on Wednesday.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

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.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-news.html

2019-04-24 11:22:58Z
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Sri Lanka Calls Bombers ‘Well Educated’ and Warns of Ongoing Threat - The New York Times

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Sri Lanka’s president asked two top security officials to resign, amid criticism that the government had ignored multiple warnings that churches could be attacked.

• The American ambassador warned of “ongoing terrorist plots,” and a Sri Lankan official said people involved in the Sunday bombings could still be at large.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests.

Image

Mourners at the burial near St. Sebastian’s Church.CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said. But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs.

The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large. As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” a point that Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense also made at a news conference.

“There could be still a few people out there,” said the minister, Ruwan Wijewardene. “Right now, we are asking people to be vigilant. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”

Mr. Wijewardene said the leader of the attacks was believed to have been among the suicide bombers, one of whom was a woman. He did not name any of the bombers, and he did not specify whether the leader among them was Mohammed Zaharan, the head of an obscure Islamist extremist group that the authorities have said was behind the attacks.

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Outside the Kingsberry Hotel in Colombo, which was bombed on Sunday.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

“They’re quite well educated people,” Mr. Wijewardene said of the attackers. “We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the U.K. and then later on did his post-graduate in Australia before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka.” He said the bombers were from different parts of Sri Lanka, but he did not elaborate.

Officials said they were still trying to determine whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State. The terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has released a video showing Mr. Zaharan leading masked, black-clad disciples as they pledged allegiance to the organization.

The Islamic State has not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility, and Mr. Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine whether the group had provided training or financing for the attacks. He said they had found no evidence to suggest that the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

The bombings Sunday occurred nearly simultaneously at three churches and three hotels. In the last couple of days, security near the bomb sites has tightened. Schools have been shut until Monday, and the postal department is requiring that items sent by mail be wrapped in front of workers at post offices.

Image

Delcia Fernando with the body of her husband, one of the hundreds killed in the bombings, in Colombo on Wednesday.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

The police said they found a “suspicious bag” at a restaurant in the city of Negombo, near St. Sebastian’s Church, where around 100 people were killed on Sunday. The bag was destroyed on Wednesday in a controlled explosion.

Many mourners on Wednesday focused their anger on the government and the security forces, as grief morphed into rage. All morning long, people gathered near St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo to mourn the deceased at a mass burial.

One distraught woman could not stop crying and shouting at the police. She blamed them for not acting on prior intelligence warning of the attacks.

An Indian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said India had interrogated a man last year who was linked with ISIS, and who said he was inspired by Mr. Zaharan’s videos on social media. That intelligence prompted an investigation into Mr. Zaharan, and it was part of the context for an April 11 warning sent to the Sri Lankan authorities about the possibility of church bombings.

Image

St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, another bombing site, on Wednesday.CreditGemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press

The warning was never relayed to church officials, and the Sri Lankan authorities apparently took no action against members of Mr. Zaharan’s group, despite specific information provided by the Indians.

During a national address on Tuesday, President Maithripala Sirisena tried to deflect criticism that he was at least partly responsible for the security failure. He acknowledged that “there was an intelligence report about the attack” but said he was “not kept informed” about it by his subordinates.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sirisena asked Hemasiri Fernando, the defense secretary, and Pujith Jayasundara, the inspector general of police, to resign, according to a senior official at the president’s office.

Many lawmakers dismissed assertions that the president would not have known about the threat memo, saying that blame for the security lapse should go all the way to the top.

Sarath Fonseka, a member of Parliament who was an army chief in the last stage of Sri Lanka’s civil war, told Parliament on Wednesday that he knew about the memo, as did the national intelligence chief. He said it was “obvious that the letter would have gone to the president.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-bombings.html

2019-04-24 11:08:29Z
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Sri Lanka Calls Bombers ‘Well Educated’ and Warns of Ongoing Threat - The New York Times

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests.

The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said. But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs.

The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large. As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” a point that Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense also made at a news conference.

“There could be still a few people out there,” said the minister, Ruwan Wijewardene. “Right now, we are asking people to be vigilant. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”

Mr. Wijewardene said the leader of the attacks was believed to have been among the suicide bombers, one of whom was a woman. He did not name any of the bombers, and he did not specify whether the leader among them was Mohammed Zaharan, the head of an obscure Islamist extremist group that the authorities have said was behind the attacks.

Image

Mourners at the burial near St. Sebastian’s Church.CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

“They’re quite well educated people,” Mr. Wijewardene said of the attackers. “We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the U.K. and then later on did his post-graduate in Australia before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka.” He said the bombers were from different parts of Sri Lanka, but he did not elaborate.

Officials said they were still trying to determine whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State. The terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has released a video showing Mr. Zaharan leading masked, black-clad disciples as they pledged allegiance to the organization.

The Islamic State has not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility, and Mr. Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine whether the group had provided training or financing for the attacks. He said they had found no evidence to suggest that the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

The bombings Sunday occurred nearly simultaneously at three churches and three hotels. In the last couple of days, security near the bomb sites has tightened. Schools have been shut until Monday, and the postal department is requiring that items sent by mail be wrapped in front of workers at post offices.

The police said they found a “suspicious bag” at a restaurant in the city of Negombo, near St. Sebastian’s Church, where around 100 people were killed on Sunday. The bag was destroyed on Wednesday in a controlled explosion.

Many mourners on Wednesday focused their anger on the government and the security forces, as grief morphed into rage. All morning long, people gathered near St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo to mourn the deceased at a mass burial.

Image

St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, another bombing site, on Wednesday.CreditGemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press

One distraught woman could not stop crying and shouting at the police. She blamed them for not acting on prior intelligence warning of the attacks.

An Indian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said India had interrogated a man last year who was linked with ISIS, and who said he was inspired by Mr. Zaharan’s videos on social media. That intelligence prompted an investigation into Mr. Zaharan, and it was part of the context for an April 11 warning sent to the Sri Lankan authorities about the possibility of church bombings.

The warning was never relayed to church officials, and the Sri Lankan authorities apparently took no action against members of Mr. Zaharan’s group, despite specific information provided by the Indians.

During a national address on Tuesday, President Maithripala Sirisena tried to deflect criticism that he was at least partly responsible for the security failure. He acknowledged that “there was an intelligence report about the attack” but said he was “not kept informed” about it by his subordinates.

Shiral Lakthilaka, his senior adviser, said the security lapse would result in firings. “Positions of secretary of the Ministry of Defense and inspector general of police are positions earmarked for dismissal,” he said.

But many lawmakers dismissed assertions that the president would not have known about the threat memo, saying that blame for the security lapse should go all the way to the top.

Sarath Fonseka, a member of Parliament who was an army chief in the last stage of Sri Lanka’s civil war, told Parliament on Wednesday that he knew about the memo, as did the national intelligence chief. He said it was “obvious that the letter would have gone to the president.”

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2019-04-24 11:03:45Z
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Sri Lanka Attacks: What We Know and Don’t Know - The New York Times

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

• Sixty people have been arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 350 people in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, Ruwan Wijewardene, the country’s state minister of defense, said on Wednesday. Nine suicide bombers, including one woman, blew themselves up in the rampage, Mr. Wijewardene said, adding that the leader of the homegrown terror group was among them.

• Indian intelligence officials warned their Sri Lankan counterparts of the attack two 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.

• 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.

• More than 350 people were killed, and about 500 were wounded. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, and included children worshiping 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

• 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 who 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.

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2019-04-24 09:11:15Z
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Duterte threatens 'war' against Canada over trash shipped to Philippines - CNN

"I'll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that (trash) out," he said Tuesday, according to CNN Philippines. "We'll declare war against them, we can handle them anyway."

According to CNN Philippines, 103 containers holding 2,450 tons of trash were shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014.

The containers were labeled as plastics for recycling, but inspectors in Philippines found the garbage was not recyclable. The trash was declared illegal as the private Canada-based company responsible for shipping the cargo didn't have import clearances.

Some of the containers are still at the port of Manila, according to the report.

The issue of global waste and what to do with it has become a growing problem. For years, developed countries have shipped recyclable waste overseas for processing, bu that is now beginning to change.

Last year, China moved to ban "foreign garbage" as a way to reduce environmental damage. The restrictions have reportedly led to recycling waste piling up in developed countries with nowhere to send it.

"I cannot understand why they are making us a dump site" said Duterte, who warned that he would sail to Canada and dump the trash there himself, adding: "The garbage is coming home."

The Philippines has been calling on Canada for years to repatriate its trash. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the past that he was "very much engaged in finding a solution" to the dumped waste.

Duterte often uses bombastic statements. Earlier this month, for instance, he threatened to send his troops on a "suicide mission" if Beijing didn't "lay off" a Manila-occupied island in the South China Sea.

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2019-04-24 07:24:00Z
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What We Know and Don’t Know About the Sri Lanka Attacks - The New York Times

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

• The police in Sri Lanka on Wednesday arrested a man carrying 30 pounds of explosives and 25 mobile phones near an army camp in the eastern city of Batticoloa, leading to concerns of a wider campaign of terror in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks that left more than 350 people dead.

• Sixty people have been arrested in connection with Sunday’s attacks, Ruwan Wijewardene, the country’s state minister of defense, said at a news conference. Nine bombers, including one woman, carried out the suicide attacks on churches and hotels, Mr. Wijewardene said, adding that the leader of the homegrown terror group was among them.

• Indian intelligence officials warned their Sri Lankan counterparts of the attack two 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 attack that warned of the attack.

• 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.

• More than 350 people were killed, and about 500 were wounded. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, and included children worshiping 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

• 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 who 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.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-news.html

2019-04-24 08:15:00Z
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Live updates: Sri Lanka investigates Easter bombings - CNN

Signs at the Ella Flower Garden Resort banning people with face coverings from entry.

Signs at the Ella Flower Garden Resort banning people with face coverings from entry.Supplied to CNN

At least one Sri Lankan hotel has banned facial coverings in the aftermath of the attacks.

A British guest at Ella Flower Garden Resort in the small mountain town of Ella, about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) east of Colombo, told CNN that the rule began on Tuesday, and described it as "a hijab and burqa ban."

Signs on the hotel's glass door depict a variety of banned facial coverings, including icons of a helmet, an eye mask, a balaclava, an eyeless full-figure shroud, and an apparent Islamic burqa.

The ban specifically mentions people in Islamic headdress.

The ban specifically mentions people in Islamic headdress. Supplied to CNN

Kosala Dissanayake, the hotel's director of sales, confirmed the rule, and emphasized to CNN that the ban extended to all face coverings.

"We mention on signs in here about full-face helmet and fully-covered jackets," he said. "Because of the current situation going on Sri Lanka, we have to take some tough decisions," he added.

The hotel's ban follows allegations that Muslim extremists were responsible for the coordinated attacks, which killed at least 359 people in churches and luxury hotels.

The Sri Lankan government has warned that attackers could still be at large, and several countries have issued travel warnings for the country.

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2019-04-24 07:21:00Z
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