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.
The Islamic State (IS) group on Tuesday said it was behind a devastating string of suicide attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people on Easter Sunday.
The claim emerged more than 48 hours after the near-simultaneous blasts tore through three high-end hotels popular with foreigners and three churches packed with Christians marking Easter.
The Sri Lankan government had already pointed the finger at a little-known local Islamic extremist group called National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), but said it was investigating whether they had international support.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he believed the Easter Sunday attacks had links to the IS group. “We will be following up on [the] IS [group] claims, we believe there may be links,” Wickremesinghe told reporters at a press conference in Colombo Tuesday.
Security agencies were also monitoring Sri Lankans who had travelled abroad to join the IS group in Syria and had returned home, said Wickremesinghe.
