{"id":109761,"date":"2019-04-23T06:33:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T05:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=109761"},"modified":"2019-04-23T06:33:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T05:33:34","slug":"sri-lanka-attacks-could-signal-new-international-campaign-of-terror-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=109761","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka attacks could signal new international campaign of terror | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The carnage in Sri Lanka, one of the worst terrorist atrocities this century, could signal the start of a new campaign of “spectacular” attacks around the world.<\/p>\n

There have long been warnings that Islamic State militants, many trained in explosives and guns after time spent fighting in Syria and Iraq, could attempt such a move following the collapse of their so-called caliphate last month<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Al-Qaeda and its affiliates similarly have the know-how to direct a coordinated barrage of suicide bombings in multiple locations, as happened in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But no international terrorist group has yet claimed any involvement, which is unusual.<\/p>\n

The 9\/11 attack on the US by al-Qaeda was the most notorious “spectacular” act of Islamist terrorism in living memory.<\/p>\n

Other high-profile incidents include the Mumbai attacks in 2008, carried out by a militant Islamist group called Lashkar e-Taiba, in which more than 170 people died, and the Bali bombings of 2002, again by Islamist extremists, which killed more than 200 people.<\/p>\n

Islamic State was linked to the bombing of Coptic Christian churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday two years ago<\/strong>, in which dozens of worshippers perished.<\/p>\n

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\n\"A<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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Van explodes near Colombo church one day on<\/span>
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Sri Lankan authorities have named a little-known local Islamist group as being behind the bloodshed in churches and at hotels at this popular holiday destination, caused by at least seven suicide bombers.<\/p>\n

But there is no doubt that international terrorist expertise played a part in helping National Thawheed Jama’ut, also known as NTJ, if they are proven to have been the culprits.<\/p>\n

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\"People<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nPeople who live near the church that was attacked <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/p>\n<\/div>
\nImage:<\/span>
\nA woman and her newborn baby leave their house as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The local group previously had only been linked to vandalising Buddhist statues – a long way away from killing and maiming hundreds in a coordinated attack involving multiple targets at the same time.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is struggling to understand how this could have happened on its soil.<\/p>\n

There are signs that warnings may not have been sufficiently acted upon.<\/p>\n

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\"Sri<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nSri Lankan police clear the area as officers inspect the site of an exploded van in Colombo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>
\nImage:<\/span>
\nThe scene in Negombo near one of the location of the attacks a day on<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The country’s police chief is said to have issued a warning on 11 April – nine days before the bombers struck – saying a “foreign intelligence agency” had reported a little-known local Islamist group was planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission.<\/p>\n

It is not known what action this tip-off generated within the police.<\/p>\n

However, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had not been made aware of the report, according to a fellow minister.<\/p>\n

There is a rift between him and the president, which sparked a political crisis last year. The prime minister has since been kept out of intelligence briefings, which could be why he was unaware of the warning.<\/p>\n

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\"Sri<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nSri Lankan police are continuing to investigate who was responsible<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>
\nImage:<\/span>
\nThe damage at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo – one of the locations attacked<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The police say they plan to investigate whether any intelligence reports of the possibility of an attack were missed as part of their wider investigation into what happened.<\/p>\n

British, US and other intelligence agencies will be working hard to identify possible links between the Sri Lanka bombers and any known foreign individuals or groups.<\/p>\n

They will be aware that other similar attacks could be just a matter of time.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor The carnage in Sri Lanka, one of the worst terrorist atrocities this century, could signal the start of a new campaign of “spectacular” attacks around the world. There have long been warnings that Islamic State militants, many trained in explosives and guns after time spent fighting in Syria and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3773,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-more","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}