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IS says its fighters behind police clashes in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, April 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Islamic State group has claimed
responsibility for three men who blew themselves up in clashes with Sri
Lankan police, the militant group said in a statement.
The men set off explosives after an hour-long gun battle with police
Saturday, inside what was believed to be a jihadist hideout near the eastern
town of Kalmunai, in the latest fallout from the Easter attacks.
In a statement posted Saturday by the IS propaganda unit the Amaq News
Agency, IS said the three men were part of the Islamic State group and
detonated their bombs after the fight with police.
The statement said the men “clashed with them (Sri Lankan police) with
automatic weapons, and after exhausting their ammunition, detonated on them
their explosive belts.”
Fifteen people died in the clashes, police said, including three women and
six children.
The violence came six days after the Easter Day bombings on three churches
and three luxury hotels which killed at least 253 people and injured 500.
Security forces armed with emergency powers have stepped up search
operations for Islamic extremists since the bombings.
Kalmunai is in the same region as the home town of the jihadist Zahran
Hashim who founded the group accused of staging the attacks.
Bss/AFP/MSY/0821 hrs