COLOMBO – Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena Wednesday asked AbuBakr al-Baghdadi to “leave my country alone” after the dreaded IslamicState leader claimed the massive suicide bombings in the island nation wasa revenge attack for the fall of the Syrian town of Baghuz, the terrorgroup’s final bastion.
Sirisena also warned it may be possible Islamic State had launched a “newstrategy” by targeting smaller countries, Sky News Wednesday quoted him assaying.
He said authorities were aware of a “small group” of Sri Lankans who hadtravelled abroad to receive training from Islamic State over the pastdecade.
In the Sky News interview, President Sirisena said he had a message forIslamic State: “Leave my country alone.”
On Monday, Islamic State’s media network published a video messagepurporting to come from its leader, Baghdadi.
The man in the IS propagada video, said to be Baghdadi referred to thedeadly Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka and to the months-long fight forIS’s final bastion Baghouz, which concluded in March.
“The battle for Baghouz is over,” he said.
“God ordered us to wage ‘jihad.’ He did not order us to win,” he said.
In a segment where Baghdadi is not seen, his voice referred to the April 21attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed 253 people and wounded nearly 500, as”vengeance for their brothers in Baghouz”.
The US-led Kurdish fighters took over the last pocket of land in Syria heldby ISIS recently.
Baghdadi, who is now 47, appeared last time in public in Mosul Iraq, in2014, where he declared an Islamic “caliphate” in the swathes of territoryIS then held in Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the whole world shouldbe on alert following the threat by the eluvsive ISIS leader.
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“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said his organisation is ready to attack any city inthe world at any moment.
This is a threat to the entire world. Therefore all countries in the worldshould see that their defence forces are on alert,” Wickremesinghe said ina special statement on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister said investigations will be carried out on the statementmade by ISIS leader that the attacks in Sri Lanka were in retaliation tothe capture of the land which was held by them.
He said many arrests have been made and arms are being recovered due to theability of the security forces and the intelligence units.
“We will arrest the rest who were involved in bomb attacks,” he was quotedas saying by the Daily Mirror.
Police suspect members of two previously little-known groups NationalThawheed Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim of carrying out theattacks, Sri Lanka’s worst that killed 253 people and injured nearly 500others, it noted.
Sri Lankan authorities have said that they suspect the attackers hadinternational links, although the precise nature of those connections arenot known.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, as well as otherundisclosed foreign agencies, are helping Sri Lanka with the probe.
Wickremesinghe also assured that security of the people will be assuredduring the upcoming Buddhist festival, Vesak and said monks will also playa role in it.
