ISLAMIC TERROR UPDATE: 10 civilians and 6 suspected terrorists killed in police raid in Sri Lanka.
Earlier Friday, authorities had seized a large cache of explosives, 100,000 ball bearings and ISIS uniforms and flags from a garage a few miles from the shootout.
The raids come on the back of a major hunt for the perpetrators of the coordinated Easter Sunday attacks that killed 253 people, including worshippers attending Easter Mass.
National Tawheed Jamath, a local extremist group, has been blamed for those bombings but has not claimed the attacks. ISIS claimed responsibility, but a link between the attackers and the terror group has not been proven. . . .
“The owners … realized there was suspicious stuff going on here, then police came here. The place was rented out two to three weeks ago,” he told CNN.
“They (the tenants) came here claiming to start a slipper factory, and the owners saw the materials but didn’t understand what they were. But after the Colombo bombings, and with the people being from Kattankudy, they then reported them to police.”
The eastern cities of Kalmunai, Chavalakade and Sammanthurai remain under extended curfew until further notice, according to police. The curfew was imposed after the shootout.
Over the last 24 hours, police have raided four safe houses in Addailachchenai, Sammanthurai, Nintavur and Sainthamaruthu — all in the eastern area, said Gunasekara, the police spokesman.
The raids came as the Sri Lankan army revealed new evidence Saturday about one of the suspected Easter Sunday bombers — Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, who killed himself while detonating a bomb at the Tropical Inn Guesthouse on the outskirts of Colombo.
Religion of peace, I’m told.
Related: Two Super-Rich Families Ended Up on Opposite Sides of Easter Attacks. “Two of the Ibrahim sons — Ilham and his older brother, Inshaf — were among the suicide bombers behind the series of devastating attacks around the country. Sri Lanka’s Muslims have been painfully perplexed by the question of why two of their most privileged sons would do this.”