Analysis: Even after Islamic State claim, unanswered questions remain about Sri Lanka church attacks
A security officer stands guard outside St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 23, two days after the church was hit in a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.
On Tuesday, the Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claimed responsibility, putting out a statement that Christians and “coalition countries” were targeted by fighters from its organization. Amaq cited a “security source” as having provided the information. The delay may be significant. In past cases where attackers had tenuous links to the Islamic State, the group has waited hours or even days until it has some kind of confirmation that an attack was inspired by their theology.
A U.S. official told The Washington Post that the Thowheed group has links to the Islamic State, but their significance is unclear. A small number of Sri Lankan citizens are believed to have joined the group at its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Experts say the number of foreign fighters who returned to Sri Lanka is likely to be very low.
The civil war that raged throughout the country from 1983 to 2009 was fought on ethnic rather than religious lines, and there are Catholic communities in both Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority.
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