USA TODAY International Edition
Sri Lanka suspects bombers had international backing
Suicide bombers who were part of a domestic militant group that might have international ties coordinated and carried out a string of deadly bombings at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, the country’s health minister said Monday.
Seven members of the radical Muslim group National Thowfeek Jamaath killed at least 290 people and injured 500 on Easter Sunday in the South Asian island nation, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.
The U.S. State Department said at least four Americans were killed and several injured. The department gave no details about the victims’ identities, citing privacy concerns.
Senaratne said Sri Lanka’s top officials were told an attack by National Thowfeek Jamaath was possible. International intelligence agencies began warning officials April 4, and on April 9, the Defense Ministry included the group’s name in a warning to the police chief, he said. Seranatne said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet were unaware of the intelligence until after the attacks because of political dysfunction.
Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando told the BBC that the intelligence “never indicated it was going to be an attack of this magnitude.”
President Maithripala Sirisena said he gave the military wartime powers to arrest suspects. The military has not had such sweeping power since the country’s civil war, which ended in 2009. The government blocked access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram after the blasts, adding to the confusion and sense of chaos in parts of the country as residents and visitors sought assurance that the danger had passed.
The bombers were all Sri Lankan, authorities said, but international influence is suspected.
“We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country,” Senaratne said, according to Reuters. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.”
Two dozen suspects were in custody for questioning Monday.
President Donald Trump called Wickremesinghe on Monday morning to express his condolences, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said. “The near simultaneous attacks on Sri Lankan churches and hotels constitute one of the deadliest terrorist events since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States,” Gidley said.
The first American identified among the victims was Dieter Kowalski, 40, a Wisconsin native living in Colorado. His employer, education company Pearson, confirmed his death Monday. CEO John Fallon said in a message on LinkedIn that Kowalski had just arrived at his hotel when he was killed in the explosion.