COLOMBO – Fifteen people including six children have died during a SriLankan security forces operation in the aftermath of the Easter Attacks, asthree cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up and others were shotdead, police said on Saturday.
The three men set off explosives, also killing three women and six childreninside what was believed to be a jihadist safe house near the eastern townof Kalmunai on Friday night.
“Three other men, also believed to be suicide bombers, were found deadoutside the house,” police said in a statement, adding that they had beenshot.[image: Soldiers evacuate an injured child after the raid in Kalmunai onApril 27. — AFP]
Police backed by troops exchanged fire with those inside the house for overan hour, a military official said, adding that the bodies were recoveredearly Saturday following a search operation.
Security forces have stepped up their searches for extremists after themilitant Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the suicideattacks on three churches and three luxury hotels, which killed least 253people and wounded hundreds more.
The joint operation between the police and the army was carried outfollowing a tip-off that those responsible were holed up in a built-up areaof Kalmunai, 370 kilometres east of the capital.
There were no casualties among the security forces, the police said.
The government has admittedlinkmajorintelligence lapses, although Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said hewas unaware of any warnings ahead of the attacks, in a sign of the riftbetween him and President Maithripala Sirisena.
“If we had any inkling, and we had not taken action, I would have handed inmy resignation immediately,” he told the *BBC*.
“But what do you do when you are out of the loop?”
Sirisena tried to sack Wickremesinghe last year, and experts believe thefeud could have played a part in Sri Lanka’s failure to act on intelligencewarnings given weeks before the attacks.Studio raided
Friday’s clashes came hours after the security forces raided a nearbylocation where they believe Islamist radicals recorded a video pledge to ISleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before carrying out the Easter bombings.
Police said they found an IS flag and uniforms similar to those worn by theeight fighters for the video before they launched the attacks. IS releasedthe video two days after the attacks.
The head of a local extremist group, Zahran Hashim, who appeared in thevideo, was killed at one of the Colombo hotels targeted, the Shangri-La. Hewas accompanied by a second bomber identified as Ilham Ibrahim.
Authorities had been desperately searching for Hashim after naming hisgroup, National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), as the perpetrators of theattack, but announced on Friday he had been killed in the hotel bombing.
DNA tests are being done on a severed head to conclusively establish thatit is Hashim’s, officials said.Radicals hunted
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The government is on the defensive over its failure to heed a foreignintelligence warning that NTJ was planning suicide bombings on churches.
Police chief Pujith Jayasundara became the second top official to resignover the blunders on Friday, after top defence ministry official HemasiriFernando also stepped down.
Sri Lanka’s Catholic leader, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop ofColombo, has said he felt “betrayed” by the government’s failure to act onthe warnings.
Wickremesinghe apologised on Friday.
“We take collective responsibility and apologise to our fellow citizens forour failure to protect victims of these tragic events,” the PM wrote onTwitter.
The military have poured troops onto the streets to back up police as theysearch for suspects using newly granted powers under a state of emergency.
At least 94 people are in custody, including a man believed to be thefather of two of the bombers.
“We now have info that there are about 140 people in Sri Lanka linked tothe Islamic State. We can and we will eradicate all of them very soon,”Sirisena said on Friday, announcing new legislation to ban extremist groups.Tourism hit
Dozens of foreigners died in the attacks and the government has said itexpects the number of overseas tourists to fall by 30 per cent this year,at a cost of $1.5 billion in revenues.
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the island — which depends ontourism as a cornerstone of its economy — could take up to two years tofully recover.
The US State Department on Friday escalated its travel warning for SriLanka and ordered the departure of all school-age family members of USgovernment employees.
Terrorists “may attack with little or no warning”, it said in a statementthat advised citizens to reconsider travelling to the island.
Several nations including Israel, Australia and Britain have already warnedtheir citizens against visiting Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks.-APP/AFP
