Islamic terrorists are feared to be plotting Sri Lanka-style massacres at other popular tourist destinations, intelligence officials have warned.
Jihadi fighters fleeing Iraq and Syria after the fall of ISIS are now able to concentrate on plotting devastating attacks with radicals overseas, according to the UK’s Sunday Telegraph.
Intelligence sources told the paper that the devastation in Sri Lanka — where at least 250 were killed — will strengthen the resolve to further target popular hotspots packed with tourists.
“It’s grim to say so, but we should expect more attempts at attacks like these more regularly for the foreseeable future,” warned Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a researcher who tracks ISIS.
“Sri Lanka was not a one-off. If anything, it was a test run.”
Well-placed sources told the paper that India, the Maldives and east African resorts in Kenya and in Tanzania are most vulnerable.
“The change in tactics is a big worry,” one intelligence source told the paper. “When they were running a de facto state that also meant running things like a health service and all that entails. That took up a lot of their time.
“But now they are not doing that they have a lot of time to push out their propaganda and they do that by carrying out attacks.”
A second source also warned that the end of ISIS’ stronghold in Syria meant that terrorists are “dispersing around the world and seeking to carry out attacks.”
The father and two brothers of the alleged organiser of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, Zahran Hashim, were killed in a security forces operation on Friday, police say.
Hashim, who blew himself up at a hotel in the capital Colombo, is said to have been the leader of an Islamist group, the NTJ, which has now been banned.
Police have raided the group's HQ in the eastern town of Kattankudy.
The attacks targeted churches and hotels, killing at least 250 people.
Sunday church services are cancelled across the country as a precaution.
However, worshippers in the capital gathered to pray outside St Anthony's, which was badly damaged in the attacks.
The country's president and prime minister attended a televised Christian ceremony.
'Safe house' discovered by chance
By Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC News, Sainthamaruthu
When I entered the house where the Islamists and their families were killed on Friday evening, the smell of death was unbearable. The fact that the Islamists blew themselves up along with their children beggars belief.
A close relative of the radical preacher Zahran Hashim's family confirmed to me that the father and two brothers of Hashim were the individuals who appeared in a video just before they killed themselves. A police officer at the site also said Zahran Hashim's mother was also believed to be among the victims.
Security forces have been conducting raids across the country but this safe house was discovered by chance, when the suspicious house owner and local people alerted the police.
Every day, police are making arrests, seizing weapons, explosives and jihadist material suggesting the radicalisation process, however small it may be, has been happening over a period of time. If the security agencies had missed this, then it is a colossal failure.
The ongoing raids and discovery of weapons and material are gradually building up tensions among the communities. A hotel owner said she was worried because she was a Catholic. Muslims say they are nervous to visit Sinhala-majority areas. Some foreign governments have warned that there is a possibility of further attacks and if those happen, fragile ethnic relations could be further strained.
What happened on Easter Sunday?
As well as St Anthony's Shrine, bombers struck churches in Negombo and the eastern city of Batticaloa, and hotels in Colombo.
Most of those killed were Sri Lankan, but dozens of foreign citizens were also among the dead.
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While the authorities have blamed the NTJ for the attacks, they say they must have had help from a larger network.
The Islamic State group, which carried out mass attacks on civilians in Paris and other locations in recent years, has said it was involved, but has not given details.
How are the victims being remembered?
Christians in Sri Lanka prayed at home while the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, held a televised Mass, attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
He called the attacks an "insult to humanity" in the service, broadcast from a chapel in his residence.
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"Today during this Mass we are paying attention to last Sunday's tragedy and we try to understand it," he said.
"We pray that in this country there will be peace and co-existence and understanding each other without division."
Scores of people gathered for the public service outside St Anthony's, where Buddhist monks joined Catholic priests in a show of solidarity with the Christian community.
Crowds of people watched the heavily-guarded church from behind a barricade, with some singing hymns and passing rosary beads through their hands.
Many lit candles and placed them in a makeshift memorial for the victims.
The church's bells tolled at 08:45 (03:15 GMT) - the exact moment a bomber detonated his device one week ago.
The hands of its damaged clock tower are still stuck at that time.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - A week ago, Sri Lankan tourist guide Ricky Costa was preparing for a typically easy Sunday ferrying backpackers between Colombo’s tea shops and beach bars in his canary-yellow rickshaw. Then the blasts began.
FILE PHOTO: Police keep watch outside the family home of a bomber suspect where an explosion occurred during a Special Task Force raid, following a string of suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
The coordinated suicide bombings by Islamist militants at hotels and churches killed more than 250 people and sent shockwaves through an Indian Ocean island state that had enjoyed relative peace since a civil war ended a decade ago.
How such a sophisticated operation could have been carried out in a country where violence by Islamist militants drawn from the Muslim minority was not high on the list of concerns has left Sri Lankans and foreign intelligence agencies stumped.
President Maithripala Sirisena has announced a total overhaul of the security establishment, blaming them for failing to communicate several warnings they had about potential attacks, including one from India hours before the first bomb.
However, interviews with more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of the Sri Lankan government and security apparatus, including military sources, senior diplomats and intelligence agents, suggest deeper failings that created an ideal environment for extremists looking for a soft target.
Since Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka won a 26-year conflict against mostly Hindu ethnic Tamil separatists, a well-resourced military has failed to adapt to shifting security threats, the sources said.
“The government was asleep. The military was asleep. They’ve been asleep for a long time,” said Costa, perching on his rickshaw as a suspicious policeman peered inside.
Costa’s analysis is a simplification, but some experts agree that a lack of preparedness was a significant factor that led to a little-known Islamist group being able to orchestrate the deadliest attack of its kind in South Asia’s history.
Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have both apologized for any lapses that might have contributed to the attacks. Wickremesinghe said the government and security forces take “collective responsibility”.
LONG-TERM DECLINE
There are no official figures on the size of Sri Lanka’s armed forces but experts estimate there are around 150,000 active military personnel and 80,000 police officers, both substantial forces for a country of just 22 million.
Despite its size, the military had become “flabby” and “unfocused”, according to one Western diplomat. Military personnel with little to do have been conscripted into commercial ventures, including whale-watching tours for tourists, running hair salons and tending to farms.
Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said it was wrong to suggest that the armed forces had not given sufficient priority to evidence of emerging Islamist extremism, but added they could only take action when there was evidence of criminal activity.
“We have passed the necessary information to the relevant authorities. But what is the legal background the military has to control extremism? A person being radicalized is not an offence in our country,” he said.
“We are searching for reconciliation after a long period of war and we cannot use a sledgehammer to kill a fly.”
Another foreign diplomat said he spoke to a senior military intelligence official the day before the attacks to warn him of an imminent threat. When he asked the official if he would raise the warning to the top echelons of government, he was told “not during the holidays”.
“Ten years of peace breeds over-confidence,” the diplomat said. “It’s easy to focus on the last weeks and months, but this attack was made possible by a much longer-term decline in the functionality of Sri Lanka’s security services and government.”
The military has also been more focused on monitoring the country’s Tamil population and preventing another separatist insurgency than on a Muslim community that makes up only 10 percent of the population, defense sources and experts said.
“This inattention could have created the opportunity for a local group — perhaps with external encouragement or support — to emerge from obscurity and perpetrate such terrifically lethal attacks,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Security experts believe National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NJT), a local Islamist group that has emerged over the last year, was responsible for the attacks, likely with the assistance of outside groups. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombings, without providing evidence.
Though Sri Lanka has no significant history of violence between its Muslim and Christian minorities, some say the warning signs of a changing social dynamic were there.
Concerns raised about a more radical strain of Islam emerging over the last five years went unheeded, civil society groups and Western diplomats say.
Hashim Mohamed Zahran, the alleged ringleader of the Easter Sunday blasts, had been flagged to security officials as a threat.
“We had concerns and we raised them. They were not properly considered,” said Hilmy Ahamed, vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, a civil society group.
“TRAGIC COMPLACENCY”
Zahran, a man in his early 30s who had been preaching an increasingly militant brand of Islam, was one of two attackers who died after detonating their explosives in the luxury Shangri-La hotel, intelligence officials say.
Ahamed said that in February he warned a contact in the intelligence services of the threat posed by Zahran. He received a text message response. “Thank you. Noted,” it said.
“There was an overall environment of complacency. That is the tragedy,” Ahamed said.
The top civil servant in Sri Lanka’s defense ministry, Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, resigned on Thursday, taking responsibility for the attacks after Sirisena pinned the blame on the security services.
Many Sri Lankans believe a deep rift between Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has also undermined national security.
Sirisena fired Wickremesinghe last year, after months of tension, only to be forced to reinstate him under pressure from the Supreme Court.
Since then their relationship has deteriorated further to the point where their factions actively try to undermine each other, including not sharing security information, defense sources say.
“Inefficiency, mediocrity, and infighting within the government contributed to last week’s attack,” said Iqbal Athas, a defense analyst, adding that vital intelligence-gathering resources had been diverted in recent years to spy on political rivals rather than to monitor extremists.
Presidential aide Shiral Lakthilaka said Sirisena and Wickremesinghe’s feuding had come to an end.
“The past is past,” Lakthilaka said in response to a question about the impact the rift had on security. “Whatever the setbacks, both have shed their differences and are working toward eradicating this menace and bring all the underground activities to a standstill.”
An ally of the prime minister, government spokesman and health minister Rathija Senaratne, blamed the president for the rift. “He by-passed ministers as well,” he said.
If there was an element of lethargy in the Sri Lankan state, it has been jolted back to life. One diplomat said the defense forces had “reverted to war mode”.
The streets of Colombo are marshalled by hundreds of soldiers and police, as everyone fears the possibility of more attacks or a spike in retaliatory sectarian violence. Nearly 10,000 soldiers have been deployed countrywide.
A gun battle on Friday between troops and suspected militants on the east coast killed 15, including Zahran’s father and two brothers, in a sign that Sri Lanka’s security crisis is far from over.
Slideshow (7 Images)
Named Lonely Planet’s No. 1 travel destination for 2019, Sri Lanka had built a reputation over the past decade as a stable, relaxed island in a chaotic region.
That image has been shattered by Sunday’s bombs.
“For 10 years this was a laid-back place,” said Costa, as a truck of armed soldiers sped past. “Not anymore.”
Reporting by Joe Brock; Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson
More than 250 people were killed and at least 500 injured in a series of coordinated suicide bombings at churches and hotels across the island April 21.
Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya is the sister of Mohamed ZahranHashim, the man Sri Lankan authorities believe was one of the leaders of the attacks.
He appeared in a video released by an ISIS-linked news agency before blowing himself up on Easter Sunday.
Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Mathaniya said she identified her brother from photographs of his body parts at the police station earlier in the week.
"Five men went missing after the attacks (on Sunday). They were my three brothers, my father, and my sister's husband," she said.
At daybreak Saturday, a gruesome scene was revealed at the raided house -- charred bodies and a roof blown off during three explosions.
One of the militants killed in that raid has been identified as Mohamed Niyas, a prominent member of the local extremist group National Tawheed Jamath and Mathaniya's brother-in-law.
"It did not hit me until I saw the bodies of the men and women. When they said six children, I thought whether they could be the people related to me," Mathaniya told CNN.
"Among the women, there were five women there in the house. The wives of my three brothers, my younger sister, and my mother. There were altogether seven children."
Witnesses told CNN one explosion during the raid turned the Sainthamaruthu house "into fire."
Mathaniya said her brother Zahran Hashim's wife and daughter are currently in the hospital. Police confirmed that after Friday's house raid, a woman and child with life-threatening injuries were taken to hospital.
Authorities continue investigations
One wounded suspect fled Friday's shootout on a motorbike, and another suspected terrorist could be on the run as well, Sri Lanka's military said.
Earlier Friday, authorities had seized a large cache of explosives, 100,000 ball bearings and ISIS uniforms and flags from a garage a few miles from the raided property.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday attacks, but a link between the attackers and the terror group has not been proven. Authorities blame National Tawheed Jamath, which has not claimed the attacks.
Sister of bomber identifies 3 family members in video
Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya also identified her father and two brothers in a video purportedly taken minutes before Friday's shootout.
The video, widely circulated on Sri Lankan social media, shows three men saying in Tamil that they will "teach a lesson" to those who "are destroying Muslims who have come to this part of the country."
The men urge people to leave their jobs to take up jihad. CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Mathiniya said the three men in the video were her father, Mohammed Hashim, and her brothers, Mohamed Hashim Rilwan and Mohamed Hashim Zainy.
India warned preacher was planning attacks
Weeks before the Easter Sunday bombings, India's intelligence service warned its Sri Lankan counterpart that Zahran was planning an attack on churches and hotels.
The radical Islamist preacher was known to the authorities and local Muslim community for years as a dangerous and violent figure.
In videos Zahran posted online, he preached hate and violence and called for attacks on other Muslims, Buddhists and Christians.
Both Christianity and Islam are minority religions in Sri Lanka, with each accounting for under 10% of the population. The vast majority of Sri Lankans identify as Buddhist.
In his hometown of Kattankudy -- about an hour's drive north from Sainthamaruthu -- locals told CNN they were terrified of Zahran, even after police had confirmed his death in the attacks.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s foreign minister says he will visit North Korea as both countries struggle under U.S. sanctions.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Sunday quoted Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that the visit is being planned and a date will be announced soon.
The United States has ramped up sanctions on Iran since President Donald Trump withdrew from its 2015 nuclear accord with world powers last year. The U.S. has tightened sanctions on North Korea to try to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons.
An Iranian parliamentary delegation visited North Korea in December, and North Korea’s top diplomat, Ri Yong Ho, visited Iran in August.
More than 250 people were killed and at least 500 injured in a series of coordinated suicide bombings at churches and hotels across the island April 21.
Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya is the sister of Mohamed Hashim Zahran, the man Sri Lankan authorities believe was one of the leaders of the attacks.
He appeared in a video released by an ISIS-linked news agency before blowing himself up on Easter Sunday.
Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Mathaniya said she identified her brother from photographs of his body parts at the police station earlier in the week.
"Five men went missing after the attacks (on Sunday). They were my three brothers, my father, and my sister's husband," she said.
At daybreak Saturday, a gruesome scene was revealed at the raided house -- charred bodies and a roof blown off during three explosions.
One of the militants killed in that raid has been identified as Mohamed Niyas, a prominent member of the local extremist group National Tawheed Jamath and Mathaniya's brother-in-law.
"It did not hit me until I saw the bodies of the men and women. When they said six children, I thought whether they could be the people related to me," Mathaniya told CNN.
"Among the women, there were five women there in the house. The wives of my three brothers, my younger sister, and my mother. There were altogether seven children."
Witnesses told CNN one explosion during the raid turned the Sainthamaruthu house "into fire."
Authorities continue investigations
One wounded suspect fled Friday's shootout on a motorbike, and another suspected terrorist could be on the run as well, Sri Lanka's military said.
Earlier Friday, authorities had seized a large cache of explosives, 100,000 ball bearings and ISIS uniforms and flags from a garage a few miles from the raided property.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday attacks, but a link between the attackers and the terror group has not been proven. Authorities blame National Tawheed Jamath, which has not claimed the attacks.
India warned preacher was planning attacks
Weeks before the Easter Sunday bombings, India's intelligence service warned its Sri Lankan counterpart that Zahran was planning an attack on churches and hotels.
The radical Islamist preacher was known to the authorities and local Muslim community for years as a dangerous and violent figure.
In videos Zahran posted online, he preached hate and violence and called for attacks on other Muslims, Buddhists and Christians.
Both Christianity and Islam are minority religions in Sri Lanka, with each accounting for under 10% of the population. The vast majority of Sri Lankans identify as Buddhist.
In his hometown of Kattankudy -- about an hour's drive north from Sainthamaruthu -- locals told CNN they were terrified of Zahran, even after police had confirmed his death in the attacks.
COLOMBO/KALMUNAI (Reuters) - The father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed their safe house two days ago, police sources and a relative of the suicide bombers told Reuters on Sunday.
A police officer inspects the site of a gun battle between troops and suspected Islamist militants, on the east coast of Sri Lanka, in Kalmunai, April 28, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father Mohamed Hashim, who were seen in a video circulating on social media calling for all-out war against non believers, were among 15 killed in a fierce gun battle with the military on the east coast on Friday, four police sources said.
Niyaz Sharif, the brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the wave of Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the island nation, told Reuters the video showed Zahran’s two brothers and father.
Three of the people killed in Friday’s gun battle were the same people who were seen in the undated video on social media, in which they discus martyrdom and urge their followers to kill all non believers, police sources said.
Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the attacks on Easter Sunday, with nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed across the island to carry out searches and hunt down members of two local Islamist groups believed to have carried out the attack.
Authorities have detained more than 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt since the April 21 bombings.
In the video, Rilwan Hashim is seen calling for all out ‘jihad’, or holy war, while children cry in the background.
“We will destroy these non-believers to protect this land and therefore we need to do jihad,” Rilwan says in the video, sitting beside his brother and father.
“We need to teach a proper lesson for these non-believers who have been destroying Muslims.”
Authorities suspect there may be more suicide bombers on the loose. Defense authorities have so far focused their investigations on international links to two domestic groups they believe carried out the attacks, the National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings, and on Sunday the group said three of its members clashed with Sri Lankan police for several hours in Friday’s gun battle on the east coast before detonating their explosive vests, the militant group’s news agency Amaq said.
The group said 17 policemen were killed or injured in the attack, but the Sri Lankan military has denied this. A police source told Reuters two policemen were slightly injured in the battle.
Police have said six children were among the other 12 people who died in the gun battle, but have not released further details.
Reporting Shihar Aneez, Shri Navaratnam, Ranga Sirilal in COLOMBO and Alasdair Pal in KALMUNNAI; editing by Richard Pullin
