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.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-news.html
2019-04-24 09:11:15Z
52780273201173
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar