\ntheir citizens against visiting Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks.
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/deshmediabd.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/220.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLOMBO, April 27, 2019 (BSS\/AFP) \u2013 Fifteen people including six children
\nhave died during a Sri Lankan security forces operation in the aftermath of
\nthe Easter attacks, as three cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up and
\nothers were shot dead, police said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The three men set off explosives, also killing three women and six children
\ninside what was believed to a jihadist safe house near the eastern town of
\nKalmunai on Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree other men, also believed to be suicide bombers, were found dead
\noutside the house,\u201d police said in a statement, adding that they had been
\nshot.<\/p>\n
Police backed by troops exchanged fire with those inside the house for over
\nan hour, a military official said, adding that the bodies were recovered
\nearly Saturday following a search operation.<\/p>\n
Security forces have stepped up their searches for extremists after the
\nIslamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks on three
\nchurches and three luxury hotels, which killed least 253 people and wounded
\nhundreds more.<\/p>\n
The joint operation between the police and the army was carried out
\nfollowing a tip-off that those responsible were holed up in a built-up area
\nof Kalmunai, 370 kilometres (230 miles) east of the capital.<\/p>\n
There were no casualties among the security forces, the police said.<\/p>\n
The government has admitted major intelligence lapses, although Prime
\nMinister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he was unaware of any warnings ahead of
\nthe attacks, in a sign of the rift between him and President Maithripala
\nSirisena.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had any inkling, and we had not taken action, I would have handed in
\nmy resignation immediately,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what do you do when you are out of the loop?\u201d<\/p>\n
Wickremesinghe tried to sack Sirisena last year, and experts believe the
\nfeud could have played a part in Sri Lanka\u2019s failure to act on intelligence
\nwarnings given weeks before the attacks.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Studio raided \u2013<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s clashes came hours after the security forces raided a nearby
\nlocation where they believe Islamist radicals recorded a video pledge to
\nIslamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before carrying out the Easter
\nbombings.<\/p>\n
Police said they found an IS flag and uniforms similar to those worn by the
\neight fighters for the video before they launched the attacks. IS released
\nthe video two days after the attacks.<\/p>\n
The head of a local extremist group, Zahran Hashim, who appeared in the
\nvideo, was killed at one of the Colombo hotels targeted, the Shangri-La. He
\nwas accompanied by a second bomber identified as Ilham Ibrahim.<\/p>\n
Authorities had been desperately searching for Hashim after naming his
\ngroup, National Thowheeth Jama\u2019ath (NTJ), as the perpetrators of the attack,
\nbut announced Friday he had been killed in the hotel bombing.<\/p>\n
DNA tests are being done on a severed head to conclusively establish that
\nit is Hashim\u2019s, officials said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Radicals hunted \u2013<\/p>\n
The government is on the defensive over its failure to heed a foreign
\nintelligence warning that NTJ was planning suicide bombings on churches.<\/p>\n
Police chief Pujith Jayasundara became the second top official to resign
\nover the blunders Friday, after top defence ministry official Hemasiri
\nFernando also stepped down.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s Catholic leader, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of
\nColombo, has said he felt \u201cbetrayed\u201d by the government\u2019s failure to act on
\nthe warnings.<\/p>\n
Wickremesinghe apologised on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take collective responsibility and apologise to our fellow citizens for
\nour failure to protect victims of these tragic events,\u201d the PM wrote on
\nTwitter.<\/p>\n
The military have poured troops onto the streets to back up police as they
\nsearch for suspects using newly granted powers under a state of emergency.<\/p>\n
At least 94 people are in custody, including a man believed to be the
\nfather of two of the bombers. Police said another 20 people were detained
\novernight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have info that there are about 140 people in Sri Lanka linked to
\nthe Islamic State. We can and we will eradicate all of them very soon,\u201d
\nSirisena said Friday, announcing new legislation to ban extremist groups.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Tourism hit \u2013<\/p>\n
Dozens of foreigners died in the attacks and the government has said it
\nexpects the number of overseas tourists to fall by 30 percent this year, at a
\ncost of $1.5 billion in revenues.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the island \u2014 which depends on
\ntourism as a cornerstone of its economy \u2014 could take up to two years to
\nfully recover.<\/p>\n
The US State Department on Friday escalated its travel warning for Sri
\nLanka and ordered the departure of all school-age family members of US
\ngovernment employees.<\/p>\n
Terrorists \u201cmay attack with little or no warning\u201d, it said in a statement
\nthat advised citizens to reconsider travelling to the island.<\/p>\n
Several nations including Israel, Australia and Britain have already warned
\ntheir citizens against visiting Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLOMBO, April 27, 2019 (BSS\/AFP) \u2013 Fifteen people including six children have died during a Sri Lankan security forces operation in the aftermath of the Easter attacks, as three cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up and others were shot dead, police said Saturday. The three men set off explosives, also killing three women and six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5391,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions\/5391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}