Daesh group claims Lanka Easter Sunday massacre

colombo — The Daesh group on Tuesday said it was behind a devastating string of suicide attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people on Easter Sunday.

The claim emerged more than 48 hours after the near-simultaneous blasts tore through three highend hotels popular with foreigners and three churches packed with Christians marking Easter.

It came after Sri Lanka’s government said initial investigations suggested the attack had been carried out as “retaliation” for shootings at two mosques in New Zealand last month that killed 50 people.

The Lankan government had already pointed the figure at a littleknown local extremist group called National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), but said it was investigating whether they had international support.

“Those that carried out the attack that targeted members of the US-led coalition and Christians in Sri Lanka the day before yesterday are Daesh group fighters,” a statement released by the group’s propaganda agency Amaq said.

It presented no immediate evidence for the claim. In a subsequent longer official statement, the group gave aliases but not the full names of seven attackers it said were involved.

Sri Lankan police sources said that the attackers who targeted two of the hotels hit Sunday were brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader and both in their twenties. —

Ruwan Wijewarden, Lanka’s state minister of defence