U.S., India Warned Sri Lanka Weeks Before Easter Terror Attacks
U.S., India Warned Sri Lanka Weeks Before Easter Terror Attacks by Uditha Jayasinghe and James Hookway – Wall Street Journal
Authorities here said an international terror group likely supported an obscure local Islamist group in carrying out a series of bombings that killed at least 321 people on Easter Sunday, weeks after the government had received warnings from the U.S. and India about a possible attack.
Government officials of this island nation said some of the suicide bombers and others arrested were linked to an obscure radical Islamist group known as National Thowheeth Jamath, a group the government singled out to police for monitoring as a possible threat after the foreign security services issued their warning.
The sophistication of the Easter-morning attacks indicated to Sri Lankan and international terror experts that whoever carried them out likely had help from experienced international terrorists, perhaps even al Qaeda or Islamic State, Sri Lankan officials said…