Islamic State claims Sri Lanka attacks with at least 45 children among dead

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, as the death toll rose to 321 on Tuesday,  and released images that purported to show the attackers.

The claim came as the country’s prime minister warned that several suspects armed with explosives were still at large.

Another top government official said the suicide bombings at the churches, hotels and other sites were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists in apparent retaliation for the New Zealand mosque massacres last month, that a white supremacist has been charged with carrying out.

Sri Lankan authorities have blamed the attacks on National Towheed Jamaar, a little-known Islamic extremist group in the island nation.

Its leader, alternately known as Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary speeches online.

The IS group’s Aamaq news agency released an image purporting to show the leader of the attackers, standing amid seven others whose faces are covered.

Meanwhile, in an address to parliament, Ruwan Wijewardene, minister of defence, said “weakness” within Sri Lanka’s security apparatus led to the failure to prevent the nine bombings.

“By now it has been established that the intelligence units were aware of this attack and a group of responsible people were informed about the impending attack,” Mr Wijewardene said.

“However, this information has been circulated among only a few officials.”

In a live address to the nation late Tuesday, Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena said he also was kept in the dark on the intelligence about the planned attacks and vowed to “take stern action” against the officials who failed to share the information.

Mr Wijewardene said the government had evidence that the bombings were carried out “by an Islamic fundamentalist group” in retaliation for the March 15 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people, although he did not disclose what the evidence was.

The office of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern issued a statement responding to the Christchurch claim that described Sri Lanka’s investigation as “in its early stages”.

“New Zealand has not yet seen any intelligence upon which such an assessment might be based,” it said.

As Sri Lanka’s leaders wrangled over the apparent intelligence failure, security was out in force for a national day of mourning Tuesday.

Hundreds of military and police personnel attended the service, and nuns, priests and community members were frisked as they arrived.

Because of the toll, the service lasted several hours, with coffins brought in three and four at a time, accompanied by sobbing relatives.

The coffins were then taken to a mass burial site and covered by three earth movers.

Also Tuesday, the military employed special police powers that it last used during a devastating civil war that ended in 2009.

Among the 40 people arrested on suspicion of links to the bombings were the driver of a van allegedly used by the suicide attackers and the owner of a house where some of them lived.

A nationwide curfew began at 9pm.

Word from international intelligence agencies that the local group National Towheed Jamaar was planning attacks apparently did not reach the prime minister’s office until after the massacre, exposing the continuing turmoil in the highest levels of government.

On April 11, Priyalal Disanayaka, the deputy inspector general of police, signed a letter addressed to directors of four Sri Lankan security agencies, warning them a group was planning a suicide attack.

The intelligence report attached to his letter, which has circulated on social media, identified the group as National Towheed Jamaar and its leader as Zahran Hashmi, and said it was targeting “some important churches” in a suicide attack that was planned to take place “shortly”.

On Monday, Sri Lanka’s health minister held up a copy of the intelligence report while describing its contents, spurring questions about what police had done to protect the public.

A block on most social media since the attacks has left a vacuum of information, fuelling confusion and giving little reassurance the danger had passed.

Even after an overnight curfew ended, the streets of central Colombo were mostly deserted Tuesday and shops closed as armed soldiers stood guard.

At a later news conference, he warned that more militants and explosives were “out there”.

Authorities said they knew where the group trained and had safe houses, but did not identify any of the seven suicide bombers, whose bodies were recovered, or the other suspects taken into custody.

All seven bombers were Sri Lankans, but authorities said they strongly suspected foreign links.