Sri Lanka suicide bomber studied in UK and Australia, defence minister says
- Police said the death toll in the attacks has risen to 359 and 58 suspects have been arrested
- Prime Minister Wickremesinghe warned that several suspects armed with explosives were still at large
“We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and later did his postgraduate [studies] in Australia before coming back and settling in Sri Lanka,” Ruwan Wijewardene said at a media briefing on Wednesday.
Wijewardene confirmed that many of the other bombers were from well-off backgrounds and had international connections, having lived or studied abroad.
Sri Lanka bombings: investigators probe global terror links
“This group of suicide bombers; most of them are well-educated and come from middle or upper-middle class, so they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially, that is a worrying factor in this,” the minister said.
“Some of them have I think studied in various other countries, they hold degrees, LLMs [law degrees], they’re quite well-educated people,” he said.
More than 400 people remain in hospital, with some in critical condition. More funerals of those killed in the attacks were also scheduled to take place on Wednesday under tight security precautions.
Overnight, 18 suspects were arrested, bringing the total number detained to 58, said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara.
State minister for defence Wijewardene said the investigation was continuing and authorities expected to make further arrests in the coming days.
“We can firmly say in the next couple of days our security agencies will have the situation of this country firmly under control,” he said.
Up to nine people directly linked to the attacks could still be at large, according to sources involved in the investigation.
Police on Tuesday said they were searching in Colombo for a lorry and a van fitted with explosives that had been identified in an intelligence report. The alert for the vehicles was still in place on Wednesday morning.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday there were more explosives and militants “out there”, and acknowledged there had been a prior warning about potential attacks. He also revealed there had been a failed attack against a fourth major hotel, and that the Indian embassy had also been a possible target.
Denmark’s richest man loses three children in Sri Lanka blasts
Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed they were warned about a potential attack two weeks before Easter Sunday, including reports that they had received repeated warnings from Indian intelligence services about a potential suicide attack against churches.
A Sri Lankan security official said that warnings had been shared by Indian authorities on April 4 and April 9.
US Ambassador Alaina Teplitz, meanwhile, told reporters that “clearly there was some failure in the system”.
The victims of Sri Lanka’s suicide bombings
Teplitz said Washington had “no prior knowledge” of a threat before the bombings. She said a team of FBI agents and US military officials were helping in the investigation.
Probes into how the attack occurred and what could have been done to prevent it will continue on Wednesday, with a parliamentary session due in the afternoon in which politicians were expected to debate who should be held responsible for the attacks.
The Foreign Ministry said 34 foreigners killed have been identified and 14 remain unaccounted for.
“The security officials who got the intelligence report from a foreign nation did not share it with me. I have decided to take stern action against these officials,” said Sirisena.
Sri Lankan authorities have blamed a local extremist group, National Thowheed Jamath, whose leader, alternately known as Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary speeches online.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombings through the group’s Amaq news agency and published a statement saying its “fighters” were responsible and listing the names of the suicide bombers, who were also shown in a video swearing allegiance.
However, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday her government had received neither official communication from the Sri Lankan government nor any intelligence regarding the claim. “We have nothing at this point to corroborate what has been said,” Ardern said.
Funerals of those killed in the blasts will continue in Negombo and Colombo on Wednesday, as a social media ban and state of emergency remain in place across the country.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
