Sri Lanka blames local militant group National Thowheed Jama’ath for bombings that killed 290, injured more than 500
By Joanna Slater , Joanna Slater Foreign correspondent covering South Asia Email Bio Follow Amantha Perera and Shibani Mahtani Shibani Mahtani Reporter covering Southeast Asia Email Bio Follow April 22 at 5:33 AM Explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killed 290 people and injured more than 500 Sunday. This is what we know so far:
On Monday, officials raised the death toll in the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and high-end hotels to 290 from 207, underscoring the massive scale of the bloodshed. More than 500 people have been injured. The highly coordinated attacks left the island nation reeling, a crushing blow after almost a decade of peace since the end of the civil war.
The security apparatus in Sri Lanka is controlled by the president, Maithripala Sirisena. Relations between him and the prime minister have been at a low point since he tried to oust him from office late last year, launching a political crisis. Images of splintered pews and bloodstained floors played across local television screens Sunday as the enormity of the attacks, launched on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, became clear.
As the smoke cleared, he saw a terrifying scene: scores of wounded and dead, crying out in pain and fear. At first, Mariyaratnam was motionless with panic. “I was thinking, ‘how could such a thing happen in a place of worship?’” he said. “We are still in shock.” The dead included “several” Americans, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. He blamed “radical terrorists” for the attacks.
There was a seventh blast at a banquet hall about 2 p.m. and an eighth at the house raided by police around 2:45 p.m. Also targeted were the ground-floor Taprobane restaurant at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel and the luxury Kingsbury Hotel.Three police officers were killed in a “scuffle” at a home in the Dematagoda area of Colombo, police said. They had gone there to interrogate an individual.
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