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Islamic State claims responsibility for Sri Lanka bombings

| Updated: Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 15:39 [IST]

New Delhi, Apr 23: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings that rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday, in which 321 people were killed.

While the group had been giving sufficient indications that it was behind the attack, on Tuesday, it said that it had in fact carried out the suicide strikes. SITE Intel Group said that the responsibility for the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State.

Islamic State claims responsibility for Sri Lanka bombings — Image Courtesy: Twitter

Sri Lanka had earlier said that the the bombings were in retaliation to the Christchurch mosque shootings.

It may be recalled that in the month of March the spokesperson for the Islamic State, Abu Hasan al-Mujahir had released an audio in which he called for revenge in the aftermath of the New Zealand mosque attack in which 50 persons were killed.

In the 44 minute audio, he says that the scenes of massacres in the two mosques should wake up those who were fooled and should incite the supporters of the caliphate to avenge their religion.

He called the mosque attack as an extension of the campaign against the Islamic State. He also likened it to the last battle being raged against the ISIS in Syria.

Post the attacks on Sunday, several pro-ISIS channels had portrayed that the attack was a revenge for strikes on mosques and Muslims in General. On Monday, the channels on Telegram released images of three suicide bombers said to be involved in the Colombo strikes. They were identified as Abu Ubaida, Abu Mukhtar and Abu Barra.

So far no group has officially claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials in India tell OneIndia that there were locals involved in the attack, but had the backing of a foreign terror group.

The Sri Lankan government has said that the death toll has risen to 321, which includes 38 foreigners. Ten Indians were killed in the attack. The government has termed the attack as one of a different nature than the political objectives of the terrorist campaign which Sri Lanka until 2009, when the 30 year old conflict ended with the LTTE being defeated.