LAST UPDATED 18:26
The first elements of the investigation into the attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed more than 300 people, mainly in churches, show that these attacks were committed in retaliation for the murders in the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Sri Lanka said today.
Meanwhile, Islamic state has claimed responsibility for coordinated bombings in Sri Lanka which killed 321 people and injured about 500 others, the group’s AMAQ news agency said on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka’s PM said that he believed the attacks were linked to the Islamic State, since the aforementioned jihadist militant group has assumed responsibility for these bombings that claimed the live of 321 people.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe reported that the security services are monitoring Sri Lankan citizens who had joined the Islamic State and returned to their homeland.
“We will check the allegations of the Islamic State. We believe there may be a connection,” he said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Washington said the security service is helping the Sri Lankan authorities investigate the attacks on three churches and four hotels.
The Washington Post reported earlier that the FBI had provided expertise to check data, while analysts were checking databases for further information on attacks in Sri Lanka.
In addition, according to three Reuters sources with direct insight of the case, Sri Lankan intelligence officials had receive warnings about a possible Islamist attack a few hours before the attacks were made.
Indian intelligence officials contacted their counterparts in Sri Lanka two hours before the first attack to warn them about a specific threat to churches, according to a Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense source, and a Indian government source.
Another Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense source said there was a warning “hours before” since the first attack.
One of the sources in Sri Lanka said a warning was also sent by the Indians on Saturday night. The Indian government source reported that similar messages had been given to Sri Lankan intelligence agents on April 4, and on April 20.
Also,Deputy Minister of Defense Rouwan Bisevarde, speaking in parliament said that “preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was committed in retaliation for the attack on Muslims in Christchurch,” referring to the March 15 attack that killed 50 people in two mosques in the south New Zealand’s big city.
He said that the attackers are believed to be two local Islamic groups.
“It was done by National Thawheed Jama’ut along with JMI”, said the Sri Lankan official.
Source: ANA-MPA