Sri Lanka blasts: ISIS claims
ISIS claimed the three militants who blew themselves up after a shoot-out with security forces in eastern Sri Lanka on Friday belonged to the group.
The raid was one of several by Sri Lankan security forces after the Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people and which were also claimed by ISIS.
The terrorist group said the three men fired automatic weapons and “after exhausting their ammunition, detonated their explosive belts”. They were among 15 people, including six children, found dead at the scene after the shoot-out in Kattankudy town on Friday night.
ISIS identified the men yesterday only by their assumed names – Abu Hammad, Abu Sufyan and Abu Al Qa’qa – but police sources and a relative of the men told Reuters they were the father and two brothers of the alleged mastermind of the Easter attacks, the radical preacher Zahran Hashim.
Police sources said three of the men killed on Friday were those seen calling for war against non-believers in a video circulating on social media. Niyaz Sharif, brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, identified the men in the video as Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father, Mohamed Hashim.
On Friday, officials confirmed that Zahran had died in the suicide bombing of the Shangri-La, one of three hotels attacked along with three churches.
ISIS said its militants killed 17 “disbelievers” during the raid on Friday. The militants often exaggerate their claims.
The claim also carried a photograph of two men before an ISIS flag, one carrying a Chinese variant of the Kalashnikov rifle like one used in the bombings, the other smiling.