Sri Lanka Easter bombing culprits remain elusive as no militant groups step up to claim responsibilty - Fox News

More than a day after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings in Sri Lanka that claimed the lives of nearly 300 people, little has been revealed or said about the militant group government officials are blaming for the violence.

Multiple media reports cited Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne as saying Monday that an obscure organization called National Thowfeek Jamaath was behind the blasts that rocked churches and luxury hotels yesterday in and around Colombo – Sri Lanka’s capital and largest city.

But officials from the island nation off the coast of India still have not produced evidence directly tying the group to the bombings. Officials told The Wall Street Journal their suspicions are hinging on information received from an unnamed foreign government in the lead-up to the attacks, alleging that National Thowfeek Jamaath had been planning acts of violence. Yet those warnings, they added, were not clear enough to take action on.

Even the spelling of the group appears to have formed a divided consensus among the international news media, with translations of its name appearing in reports as everything from Nations Thawahid Jaman to National Thawheed Jama’ut.

SRI LANKA AUTHORITIES WARNED OF EASTER CHURCH BOMBINGS WEEKS BEFORE SUNDAY’S MASSACRE, OFFICIALS SAY

And adding to the confusion: no militant group as of late Monday has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka bombings. The Associated Press has quoted Senaratne as saying that whichever group carried out the attacks likely had help from outside the country – further widening the scope of the investigation.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced Monday that as of midnight tonight, the country’s military will be granted war-time powers to arrest and detain suspects in the bombings probe. The Associated Press reported 24 people are already in custody for questioning, but their names, ages and affiliations are unclear.

Anne Speckhard, the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, told the New York Times that National Thowfeek Jamaath’s mission is to generate hate, fear and divisions through the spread of the global jihadist movement.

The group originated in 2009 on Sri Lanka’s east coast and became known for vandalizing Buddhist statues and stoking religious tensions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In March 2017, the group was involved in a clash in the Muslim-majority town of Kattankudy – near one of Sunday’s church bombing sites – that left three hospitalized and resulted in 10 arrests, the New York Times says, citing a local media report.

The Indian Express website says the group was formed in Kattankudy and has been pushing for Sharia law in the region.

Yet the Easter Sunday bombings would represent a new – and radical -- escalation of violence for National Thowfeek Jamaath and its supporters.

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“This attack took a lot of planning, which is surprising for a group that most have never heard of,” Raffaello Pantucci, a member of the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies think tank, told The Wall Street Journal. “That makes me suspect that there is an external link, and Islamic State or Al Qaeda are the obvious suspects.”

Researchers also told the newspaper that Christians and Westerners are increasingly coming under attack by extremists in Asia and Africa.

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2019-04-22 18:04:46Z
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Iran's hard-liners can ill afford new US sanctions, they will retaliate - Washington Examiner

Under escalating pressure from U.S. sanctions, Iran's leaders face an existential crisis. As a result, they are increasingly likely to strike out against the U.S. in response.

The latest U.S. action against Iran came on Monday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended waivers that allow foreign nations to purchase Iranian oil without U.S. sanction reprisals. Pompeo, however, also pledged that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will increase their oil production to maintain price stability. It's the correct course of action.

Yes, the U.S. must ensure this doesn't harm America's growing partnership with India, a top importer of Iranian oil, and yes, the U.S. should more tightly define its demands of Iran. Trump should also authorize similar action against Nicolás Maduro's Venezuelan regime.

Still, ending waivers will reduce the power of Iran's hard-line faction. Their declining revenue means less ability to spread sectarian brutality. And for the fanatics, America's pressure comes at an inopportune time. Iran's economy is already suffering. Economic growth is lethargic, inflation reached 47% in March 2019, food inflation is even higher, and youth unemployment soars. With Iran highly dependent on oil exports for its foreign capital generation, U.S. oil export pressure will cut deep.

The hard-liners need oil sales to prop up the security agencies and militias that sustain its power. Crude oil prices are now at $65 a barrel and have been rising since January, when they went as low as $45 per barrel. Unable to sell oil at today's higher price, Iran is losing out at the margin on hundreds of millions of otherwise easy dollars.

Yet the U.S. shouldn't be arrogant here, for it is precisely the coming economic damage and lost opportunity that will motivate the hard-liners to escalate.

While that escalation has been coming for months now, the portent of a near-total end to oil export revenue will catalyze the hard-liners' fear and anger. They live and die for the Islamic revolution and will protect that interest at high cost. The most likely Iranian action is closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which vast oil supplies flow. Iran might hope that this action would induce international pressure on the U.S. to reduce its pressure on Iran.

Pompeo knows this, which explains why he warned on Monday that any violence by Iranian officers, agents, or militias will meet forceful retaliation. Regardless, choppy waters lie ahead.

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2019-04-22 15:47:00Z
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Sri Lanka authorities warned of Easter church bombings weeks before Sunday's massacre, officials say - Fox News

Weeks before coordinated bombings ripped through churches and luxury hotels -- killing nearly 300 people on Easter Sunday -- authorities in Sri Lanka received warnings a domestic radical Muslim group would attack the nation on the Christian holy day.

Despite multiple warnings from international intelligence agencies, however, Sri Lanka’s security officials reportedly failed to heed the alerts and apparently took no action to protect against a potential attack. Authorities were first alerted to the threat April 4.

More than two weeks later, near-simultaneous blasts detonated at three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo, the capital city. Two more explosions occurred hours later outside of Colombo – one at a guesthouse and the other near an overpass.

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA - APRIL 21: An inside view of the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019. (Photo by Chamila Karunarathne/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

US STATE DEPARTMENT WARNS OF POSSIBILITY OF MORE ATTACKS IN SRI LANKA

At least 290 people – including 39 foreigners – were killed and more than 500 people were injured. The government on Monday said the attacks were likely perpetrated by local militant group National Thowfeek Jaamath, a little-known radical Islamist organization.

Experts told the New York Times the group promotes an Islamic terrorist ideology.

“These attacks appear to be quite different and look as if they came right out of the ISIS, Al Qaeda, global militant jihadist playbook, as these are attacks fomenting religious hatred by attacking multiple churches on a high religious holiday,” Anne Speckhard, the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, told the newspaper.

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said international agencies warned of possible attacks several times beginning in early April. He said the defense ministry wrote to the police chief on April 9 to give law enforcement a heads up about the intelligence, including providing the group’s name.

Sri Lankan authorities blame seven suicide bombers of a domestic militant group for coordinated Easter bombings that ripped through Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels which killed and injured hundreds of people. It was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Two days later, on April 11, police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division about the warnings. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response.

EASTER MASSACRE AT CHURCHES, HOTELS IN SRI LANKA KILLED TV CHEF, MOTHER AND SON, AMERICANS

Top government officials, including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet, were reportedly kept in the dark about the intelligence until after the attack – which Senaratne blamed on political dysfunction within the government.

“We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” Wickremesinghe said Sunday.

An investigation has been launched into the apparent breakdown of communication within the government.

A forensic analysis of body parts found at six sites determined seven suicide bombers conducted the coordinated assault. Most attacks were carried out by single bombers, but two men targeted the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.

Officials said all the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities said foreign links to the plot were suspected. At least 24 suspects were in custody for questioning.

On Monday, a van that had been parked since Sunday near St. Anthony’s Shrine – one of the churches targeted in the attack – exploded. No injuries were reported after that blast.

Police said they went to inspect the van after people reported it had not been moved in more than a day. Inside, cops discovered three bombs that they tried to defuse. Instead, the bombs detonated, sending panic-stricken pedestrians fleeing.

Authorities said a large bomb had been found and defused late Sunday on an access road to the international airport.

POPE CELEBRATES EASTER SUNDAY AMID BLOODSHED IN SRI LANKA

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said the attacks could have been thwarted.

“We placed our hands on our heads when we came to know that these deaths could have been avoided. Why was this not prevented?” he said.

The U.S. State Department confirmed “several” Americans died in the attacks and on Sunday issued a revised travel warning to Sri Lanka, saying terror groups continue to plot and may possibly carry out new attacks in hotels and churches.

The alert said possible targets include tourist locations and transportation hubs, noting the terrorists “may attack with little or no warning.”

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The Sri Lankan government initially lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night but reinstated it Monday afternoon. Most social media remained blocked Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-04-22 13:03:17Z
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Victims of Sri Lanka Attacks: Who They Were - The New York Times

The true toll of Sunday’s attacks in Sri Lanka was starting to come into focus on Monday, as family members, government officials and news reports offered the first glimpse of the people who lost their lives.

Officials have confirmed citizens from at least eight countries, including the United States, were killed in the attacks.

Information about Sri Lankan victims was sparse, but the names of some foreign victims began to appear in the international news media, a few of which The Times was able to confirm. We will update this article as we learn more about the people who died.

[Follow the latest updates on the bombing and the response here, including the current death toll.]

Celebrity chef and her daughter

Shantha Mayadunne was a well-known figure in Sri Lanka, where she had long been a celebrity chef with a cooking show on local television. She offered classes for locals and tourists, and focused on “quick and easy” meals.

“Even if you have a stable income, and every comfort in the home, there is nothing that can bring a greater feeling between family members than a satisfying meal,” she said in a 2001 interview.

She and her daughter, Nisanga Mayadunne, were among those killed at the Shangri-La Hotel, in the capital, Colombo, according to news reports. Nisanga studied at the University of London and lived in Colombo, according to her Facebook page.

Minutes before the attacks, Nisanga Mayadunne posted a family photo with seven wide smiles. “Easter breakfast with family,” she wrote on Facebook.

Visitors at the Shangri-La Hotel

As of Monday, the identities of two other people who died in the bombings at the Shangri-La Hotel were known.

One of them, K.G. Hanumantharayappa, was a businessman from the southern Indian city of Bangalore who had only been in Sri Lanka for a few days, his nephew, Rajath, said by telephone. Mr. Hanumantharayappa was among five Indian victims of the attacks who had been identified as of Monday afternoon by Indian officials.

Another victim, Kaori Takahashi, was a Japanese woman who had been eating breakfast at the Shangri-La Hotel with her family, according to NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster. Her husband was wounded but survived the attack.

Ms. Takahashi had been in charge of public relations for the women’s chapter of a volunteer support group for Japanese expatriates and their families in Sri Lanka, according to the group’s website. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that she was in her 30s.

The hotel also said on Facebook that three employees, whom it did not identify, had been killed in the attack.

Three children of a Danish billionaire

Three of the Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen’s four children were among the victims killed in the Colombo attacks, the Danish news media reported.

Mr. Povlsen, 46, is the owner of the Bestseller clothing company and the largest landowner in Scotland. He and his wife, Anne, have spoken of “rewilding” thousands of acres across Scotland, and said last week that they would pass the project on to their children in the future.

In a statement on Monday, Bestseller confirmed the deaths of three of Mr. Povlsen’s four children, but did not say which of them had died.

The Povlsens are Denmark’s wealthiest family, and they typically keep an extremely low public profile. The precise ages of the four children — Alma, Agnes, Astrid and Alfred — were not widely known.

A technical services leader from Denver

Sunday was a day of ever-increasing dread for friends and family of Dieter Kowalski, a 40-year-old Denver resident who was killed in the attack.

Mr. Kowalski was a senior leader of technical services for Pearson, an educational media company. He was on a business trip to Sri Lanka, where he worked with several engineering teams, according to his LinkedIn profile. It was his second visit to the country in three years, and he was planning to work alongside colleagues with whom he had become friends, said his mother, Inge Kowalski, who lives in Milwaukee.

“He was really happy to go there,” she said. “He was looking forward to the food.”

Arriving in Sri Lanka on a flight that landed several hours late, Mr. Kowalski checked into his hotel, the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo, around 5 a.m., she said.

After the bombs went off, “it was a nightmare,” she said, describing a panicked effort to find him that was reflected in the string of fearful comments beneath his last, cheerful Facebook post. “We spent the whole day yesterday looking for him.”

His family and friends hoped that he had been sleeping, rather than in line at breakfast, when the bomb went off, but no one in the United States or Sri Lanka could track him down.

They discovered that the police had his cellphone, Ms. Kowalski said, and had little luck contacting hospitals. Finally, around 10 p.m., the United States Embassy called with the news they feared most.

Mr. Kowalski went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison but moved to Denver over a decade ago, “for the skiing.” His mother said he was single and close to his family — Ms. Kowalski said she had just spent 10 days skiing with him in Colorado, and they had recently bought tickets for a family trip to Majorca, Spain.

“He was a happy guy,” his mother said. “We are all in shock.”

Two Turkish engineers

Two of the victims were Turkish engineers who had been working on a project in Sri Lanka, the English-language Daily Sabah newspaper reported, citing the state-owned Anadolu Agency. The report did not say where they had been killed.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, confirmed the victims’ names as Serhan Selcuk Narici and Yigit Ali Cavus. A Facebook page that appeared to be Mr. Narici’s said he had moved to Colombo in March 2017.

A Bangladeshi politician’s young relative

Zayan Chowdhury, an 8-year-old relative of a prominent Bangladeshi politician, was among those killed in one of the hotel blasts, the Bangladeshi news media reported. The Dhaka Tribune newspaper said that he had been in Colombo on vacation with his family.

Zayan was the grandson of Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, who is the leader of Bangladesh’s governing Awami League political party and a cousin of the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

When the blast hit, Zayan was having breakfast on the ground floor of a hotel with his father, Mashiul Haque Chowdhury, the online newspaper bdnews24.com reported. The boy’s mother and younger brother were in their hotel room.

The Dhaka Tribune reported that Zayan’s father was injured in the blast and admitted to a hospital.

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2019-04-22 14:48:45Z
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Trump aims to drive Iran's oil exports to zero by ending sanctions waivers - CNBC

The Trump administration will sharply accelerate its goal of driving Iran's oil exports to zero, ending sanctions exemptions that it previously granted to some of the Islamic Republic's biggest customers.

President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran last May and restored wide-ranging sanctions on the Iranian economy in November. At the time, his administration granted six-month waivers to eight countries that allowed them to continue importing limited quantities of crude oil from Iran.

The market widely expected Washington to extend the waivers for five of the countries. However, the administration says that any country still importing oil from Iran will be subject to U.S. sanctions beginning on May 2.

"President Donald J. Trump has decided not to reissue Significant Reduction Exceptions (SREs) when they expire in early May," the White House said in a statement. "This decision is intended to bring Iran's oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenue."

The Trump administration is trying to force Iran to the negotiating table. Last year, it laid out 12 demands that Iran must meet before the U.S. lifts sanctions. The list asks Iran to accept new limits on its nuclear program, end ballistic missile tests, cut off support for U.S.-designated terror groups and free U.S. citizens held in detention.

The decision to stop issuing sanctions waivers threatens to wipe roughly 1 million barrels per day off the market at a time when analyst say oil supply is already tightening. Crude futures spiked to nearly six-month highs on news of the policy, which was first reported Sunday by The Washington Post.

The Trump administration will partner with Iran's regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to offset the drop in Iranian supplies, the White House said.

The Saudis and Emiratis are currently partnering with their fellow OPEC members and several other oil producing nations, including Russia, to limit oil supplies. The so-called OPEC+ alliance has been trying to keep 1.2 million bpd off the market since January, following a collapse in oil prices in the final months of 2018.

The White House statement suggests the group will soon reverse course and hike output. Following its official announcement, Trump tweeted that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members will "more than make up" for any drop in Iranian supplies.

@realDonaldTrump: Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC will more than make up the Oil Flow difference in our now Full Sanctions on Iranian Oil. Iran is being given VERY BAD advice by @JohnKerry and people who helped him lead the U.S. into the very bad Iran Nuclear Deal. Big violation of Logan Act?

Saudi Arabia stopped short of explicitly guaranteeing a change in policy but reiterated its commitment to balancing oil supply and demand.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said Monday the kingdom will "coordinate with fellow oil producers to ensure adequate supplies are available to consumers while ensuring the global oil market does not go out of balance."

"In the next few weeks, the Kingdom will be consulting closely with other producing countries and key oil consuming nations to ensure a well-balanced and stable oil market, for the benefits of producers and consumers as well as the stability of the world economy," Falih said in a statement.

Three of the countries that received the exemptions — Greece, Italy and Taiwan — have already cut their imports from Iran to zero. However, analysts widely expected the Trump administration to extend the waivers to China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, all of which took advantage of the waivers during the first six-month window that began in November.

Companies in those countries now face the threat of being locked out of the U.S. financial system if they continue to import crude from Iran. The question is whether some of those countries will seek to skirt the sanctions, including by facilitating or encouraging purchases of Iranian crude through companies not tied to the U.S. financial system.

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced Washington's Iran policy.

"China opposes the unilateral sanctions and so-called 'long-arm jurisdictions' imposed by the US. Our cooperation with Iran is open, transparent, lawful and legitimate, thus it should be respected," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters.

"Our government is committed to upholding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and will play a positive and constructive role in upholding the stability of global energy market."

Earlier this month, the Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, marking the first time the U.S. has applied the designation to a foreign country's military.

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2019-04-22 14:00:00Z
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Trump took another important step to fully ending Iran nuclear deal, now he must finish the job - Washington Examiner

The Trump administration on Monday took another important step toward unwinding the disastrous Iran deal by ending the waivers that allowed many countries to continue purchasing oil from the terrorist regime, but now President Trump should take the final step to kill it off for good.

It's been nearly a year since Trump made the wise decision to announce that the U.S. was leaving the Iran deal negotiated by the Obama administration, but at the same time, he left many avenues open that have allowed the deal to be kept alive so that it could be resurrected by a future Democratic president.

The major (and valid) gripe about the Iran deal from the Trump team was that it handcuffed the U.S. in conducting foreign policy in the Middle East, because as long as the U.S. was bound by it, national security decisions throughout the region were shaped by the interest of preserving the deal. Meanwhile, it allowed Iran to continue to rake in tens of billions of dollars to help it fund terrorism and destabilizing actions across the world, to increase its strength as a conventional threat, and to preserve the long-term ability to go nuclear.

Though Trump, in announcing he was pulling out of the deal, promised to put "maximum pressure" on Iran, the administration has stopped short of doing that.

Last November, after a six-month transition period, Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new round of sanctions against Iran, but still offered concessions on three main fronts. The Treasury and State Departments announced waivers from oil sanctions to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and even Turkey. Additionally, the administration stopped short of completely disconnecting Iran from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication system, a network through which global banks communicate that is crucial to accessing international markets. Finally, and most surprisingly, the administration granted waivers allowing foreign firms to continue “civil” nuclear work with Iran’s Arak, Bushehr, and Fordow facilities. Though the State Department released a statement claiming these facilities would “continue under the strictest scrutiny to ensure transparency and maintain constraints on Iran,” allowing this to continue merely perpetuates the global connection to Iran’s nuclear program, thus keeping it more entrenched.

Those committed to the Iran deal, including Europeans, ex-Obamaites, and the Democratic foreign policy establishment, know that they cannot convince Trump to embrace the deal. But what they've been hoping for is that the embers of the Iran deal are at least kept alive during the Trump administration, so that it can be brought back to life when Democrats regain power. That's why it's important to snuff it out entirely.

Earlier this month, Trump took the long-overdue step of designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which plays a key role in the Iranian economy, as well as in its efforts to quash internal dissent, fund terrorism, and foment instability throughout the Middle East. And now, on Monday, the administration is taking the significant step of ending the oil waivers to other countries, which which, if properly enforced, should have a further debilitating effect on the fragile Iranian economy. All of this is good news that is heading in the right direction.

But as long as proponents of preserving the Iran deal can cling to the supposedly "civil" nuclear cooperation, they can bring back the deal. That's why it's so important that Pompeo take the additional step of ending all of this nuclear cooperation.

Ending the Iran deal is one of the highlights of Trump's foreign policy legacy. If the administration does not follow through, then his legacy could be quickly undone by his successor with the stroke of a pen. Trump should not enable any sort of zombie Iran deal to remain in place, and should instead act to obliterate it.

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2019-04-22 14:14:00Z
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US to end sanctions exemptions for major Iranian oil importers - BBC News

US President Donald Trump has decided to end exemptions from sanctions for countries that buy oil from Iran.

The White House said waivers granted to the five main buyers - China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey - would expire in early May.

This decision is intended to bring Iran's oil exports to zero, denying the government its main source of revenue.

Mr Trump reinstated the sanctions last year after abandoning a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

Under the 2015 accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for sanctions relief.

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC will more than make up the Oil Flow difference in our now Full Sanctions on Iranian Oil. Iran is being given VERY BAD advice by @JohnKerry and people who helped him lead the U.S. into the very bad Iran Nuclear Deal. Big violation of Logan Act?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2019

End of Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

The Trump administration hopes to compel Iran to negotiate a "new deal" that would cover not only its nuclear activities, but also its ballistic missile programme and what officials call its "malign behaviour" across the Middle East.

US officials have insisted they are not seeking "regime change".

The sanctions have led to a sharp downturn in Iran's economy, pushing the value of its currency to record lows, quadrupling its annual inflation rate, driving away foreign investors, and triggering protests.

In November, the US reimposed sanctions on Iran's energy, ship building, shipping, and banking sectors, which officials called "the core areas" of its economy.

However, six-month waivers from economic penalties were granted to the eight main buyers of Iranian crude - China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece - to give them time to find alternative sources and avoid causing a shock to global oil markets.

Three of the eight buyers - Greece, Italy and Taiwan - have stopped importing Iranian oil. But the others had reportedly asked for their waivers to be extended.

The White House said Mr Trump's decision to end the waivers was "intended to bring Iran's oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenue".

"The United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, three of the world's great energy producers, along with our friends and allies, are committed to ensuring that global oil markets remain adequately supplied," it added.

"We have agreed to take timely action to assure that global demand is met as all Iranian oil is removed from the market."

The price of global benchmark Brent crude rose by 2.6% to $73.87 a barrel on Monday, after earlier hitting $74.31 - the highest since November.

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2019-04-22 12:52:51Z
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