BLOODY REVENGE
ISIS supporters celebrate Sri Lanka bomb attacks as payback for New Zealand mosque massacre and Syria strikes
ISIS supporters have gleefully celebrated the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that left at least 290 dead and around 500 injured.
No terror group has officially claimed responsibility for the blasts at three churches, four hotels and a block of flats in the capital Colombo.
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Sri Lanka attacks - security forces raiding suspects' house in Colombo after bombings in churches and hotels
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:
- At least 290 people killed and 500 injured after suicide bomb blasts at three churches, four hotels and a block of flats in Colombo
- Eight Brits, 'several' Americans, one Dutch, one Chinese, two Turkish and one Portuguese national have been confirmed dead
- Theresa May brands attack "truly appalling" as world leaders express sorrow
- Social media ban in place to prevent spread of misinformation, and night curfew imposed
- 13 terrorists arrested, says defence minister Ruwan Wijewardene
- It comes ten days after Sri Lanka's police chief issued alert on possible attacks to come
- A six-foot pipe bomb was intercepted and destroyed by the Air Force on the way to Colombo International Airport
But ISIS supported have boasted that the series of terror attacks were revenge for the New Zealand mosque massacre and the US-backed military campaign in Syria.
Terror expert Rita Katz said ISIS media channels are “posting rampantly” about the explosions and praying “may Allah accept” the attackers.
The Director of the SITE Intelligence Group claimed this may clear the path for ISIS to claim responsibility.
“While such a claim may frame the op as revenge for New Zealand, this was likely planned long before,” she said.
Ms Katz pointed out that the attacks mirror the January 2019 bombings that targeted a Catholic Church in the Philippines, which ISIS formally claimed.
SURGE OF ISIS ACTIVITY IN SE ASIA
Fighters from Sri Lanka have been mentioned in ISIS ranks and the country would be “easily accessible” for its supporters in the region, Ms Katz said.
Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia, have “seen a surge of central-coordinated ISIS activity” in what it dubs its “East Asia Province.”
A number of Sri Lankan Muslims from “well-educated and elite” families were known to have joined ISIS in Syria, according to Reuters.
The Colombo attacks come just weeks after ISIS launched a massive global military campaign dubbed the ‘Revenge Invasion’ as payback for the loss of territory in Syria.
The terror group was declared to be "totally defeated" in Syria on March 23 after the US-backed SDF liberated what it said was the last pocket of territory held by the militants.
But while the world has been celebrating the fall of ISIS, the terror group has reportedly been re-grouping and plotting more attacks.
SUICIDE BOMBERS
Nearly 500 were injured when suicide bomb blasts ripped through buildings in Colombo - where tourists were eating breakfast and Christian worshippers had gathered for morning mass.
Eight Brits, including a mum and her two kids, are feared to be among at least 290 killed in the explosions.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has confirmed "several" Americans were also killed- along with victims from the Netherlands, Portugal and China.
Three churches and three hotels - the luxury Shangri-La Hotel, Cinnamon Grand and The Kingsbury Colombo - were targeted in the devastating attacks.
Colombo International Airport was later put on lockdown amid reports of a suspicious package - which was later destroyed by a bomb disposal squad.
EASTER MASS AND TOURISTS TARGETED
All of the six explosions yesterday morning - as Christians attended Easter mass - were carried out by suicide bombers, according to initial investigations.
Sri Lanka's minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said in a press conference: "We believe that all the culprits who have been involved in this unfortunate terrorist incident will be taken into custody as soon as possible.
“They have been identified, and they will be taken into custody as soon as possible."
He later confirmed 13 people have been arrested over the string of deadly blasts - one of whom is said to have been stopped in a van transporting explosives to the city.
WARNING BEFORE DEADLY ATTACKS
It has emerged Sri Lanka's police chief warned of suicide bombers planning to hit "prominent churches" 10 days before yesterday's attack - with the government confirming the same group was behind the atrocity.
Pujuth Jayasundara reportedly said: "A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo".
The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the destruction of Buddhist statues.
There has been no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009, during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.
Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL).
And there have been recent reports of clashes between Sinhalese Buddhist and Muslim communities, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam.
Only around six per cent of majority-Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.
The Colombo bombings are the worst violence in Sri Lanka since the country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.
NATION DIVIDED Sri Lanka’s long history of violence
The suicide bomb attacks that devastated Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Easter Sunday recalled the worst days of the country's 26-year civil war.
Sri Lanka, an island nation of some 23 million people, had been enjoying a period of relative calm despite its troubled history of ethnic and religious divides.
But just weeks before the country was set to mark 10 years since the end of the civil war, this was shattered by the series of blasts that killed more than 200 people.
The country was dominated for decades by the sharp divide between the majority Sinhalese, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist, and the minority Tamil, who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
The mistreatment of Tamils helped nurture the growth of armed separatists and led to the start of a civil war in 1983.
The Tamil Tiger fighters eventually created a de facto independent homeland in the country's north.
But they were crushed in a 2009 government offensive, with some observers believing that tens of thousands of Tamils died in the last few months of fighting alone.
After the civil war ended, a religious divide quickly took hold.
Hardline Buddhist monks started rallying Sri Lankans against what they argue is a pernicious threat: Muslims, who make up roughly 10 per cent of the country's population.
Buddhist nationalist leaders accused Muslims of recruiting children, trying to grow their ranks by marrying Buddhist women and attacking Buddhist shrines.
Muslims denied the accusations. Small-town economics also plays a significant role, since Muslims own many of the country's small shops.
In 2018, anti-Muslim violence flared across the hills of central Sri Lanka, fed by rumours spread over social media about attacks on Buddhists.
Mobs of Buddhists swept through small towns, attacking mosques and Muslim-owned shops.
The government briefly declared a state of emergency and ordered popular social media networks, including Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp, blocked for a time to stop the violence from spreading.
SOCIAL MEDIA BLOCKED
Sri Lankan authorities have blocked most social media services in the country following the Easter Sunday attacks.
The NetBlocks observatory said it detected an intentional nationwide blackout of popular services including Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and Viber.
Sri Lankan officials said they were temporarily blocking social media to curtail the spread of false information and ease tensions.
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The defence ministry said the shutdown would extend until the government concludes its investigation into the bomb blasts that rocked churches, luxury hotels and other sites.
NetBlocks cautioned that such post-attack blackouts are often ineffective.
"What we've seen is that when social media is shut down, it creates a vacuum of information that's readily exploited by other parties," said Alp Toker, executive director of the London-based group. "It can add to the sense of fear and can cause panic."
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Colombo attacks - Footage from the scene in Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lanka after horrific explosion
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