The Islamic State claimed responsibility on April 23 for the Easter Sunday bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, as the government there raised the number of people killed to 321. The group’s Amaq news agency called the bombers “Islamic State fighters.”
New York Times: ISIS claims responsibility for Sri Lanka bombings
An image grab taken from a press release issued on April 23, 2019 by the Islamic State (IS) group's propaganda agency Amaq, allegedly shows eight men it said carried out a string of deadly suicide bomb blasts on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, lined up at an undisclosed location. The man in the centre is belived to be Zahran Hashmi, who was identified by the Sri Lankan police as the leader of the Islamist National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group, which Colombo has blamed for the attacks. - The Islamic State group claimed a series of bombings on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people on April 21, and released the photo of the men it said were behind the "blessed attack", describing them as "fighters" from the terror network. The massive casualty toll would make the Easter attacks the deadliest overseas operation claimed by IS since the group proclaimed its worldwide caliphate in mid-2014.
