World

Colombo, Apr 28: Sri Lanka's president is banning two groups allegedly linked to the Easter bombings under emergency powers that came into effect on Tuesday. The office of President Maithripala Sirisena said in a statement Saturday evening that National Thawheed Jammath, or NTJ, and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem, or JMI, would be banned by presidential decree. Presidential spokesman Dharmasri

Apr 27: Police say that 15 bodies including six children have been found after a raid in east Sri Lanka on militants linked to the Easter bombings. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara gave the figures early Saturday after a gunfight between soldiers and the suspected militants near Sammanthurai. The gunbattle began Friday night after police tipped off soldiers to a suspected safe house, where

Colombo, Apr 26: An extremist believed to have played a key role in Sri Lanka’s deadly Easter bombings died in an attack on a Colombo hotel, the country’s president confirmed Friday. “What intelligence agencies have told me is that Zahran was killed during the Shangri-La attack,” President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters, referring to Zahran Hashim, leader of a local extremist group. Hashim

Colombo, Apr 26: Authorities in Sri Lanka on Thursday lowered the death toll in a spate of Easter bombings by more than 100 to 253, admitting some of the badly mutilated bodies had been erroneously double-counted. The toll revision will boost the pressure on a government already under fire over its apparent failure to act on intelligence about the attacks, and follows the resignation of a top

Colombo, Apr 25: Police are holding the father of two Sri Lankan suicide bombers on suspicion of aiding and abetting his sons to carry out Easter Sunday attacks that have left at least 359 people dead. Mohamed Yusuf Ibrahim was arrested on Sunday following attacks at hotels and churches. His adult sons, Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim and Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim, blew themselves up in two different attacks

Colombo, Apr 25: Authorities in Sri Lanka continued their search operations with the help of army and arrested 16 more suspects in connection with the horrific Easter Sunday blasts in which more than 350 people were killed. The arrested people were being interrogated at length by investigation sleuths in connection with the country's deadliest attack. Nine suicide bombers, believed to be the

Colombo, Apr 25: Sri Lankan housewife Fathima Fazla thought of her neighbours in the grand three-storey home across the street as the wealthy celebrities of her humble Colombo suburb. She had no idea how infamous they would become. Two brothers who lived at the white house on Mahawela Gardens have emerged as key players in suicide attacks on Easter Sunday that killed more than 350 people and

Colombo, Apr 25: Nine suicide bombers, including a woman, were involved in the massive Easter Sunday bombings and 60 people have been arrested so far for their suspected links to Sri Lanka's worst terror attack that killed at least 359 people, a top police officer said Wednesday. Suicide bombers, believed to be members of local Islamist extremist group, carried out a series of devastating blasts

Colombo, Apr 23: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for coordinated bombings in Sri Lanka which killed 321 people and injured about 500 others, the group’s AMAQ news agency said on Tuesday. The group did not give evidence for its claim. Sri Lanka on Tuesday placed all police stations in Colombo on high alert as police were hunting for an unidentified container truck and a van, believed

Colombo, Apr 23: An initial probe into deadly suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 300 people shows it was "retaliation for Christchurch," the country's deputy defence minister said Tuesday. "The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka (on Sunday) was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch," state minister of defence Ruwan