COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – the Domingo de Pascua coordinated explosions that hit churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka were the work of seven suicide bombers, said Monday a Government researcher. The analysis of the remains of the bodies of the attackers made it clear that they were suicide bombers, said Ariyananda Welianga, forensic investigator. Most of the attacks were the work of a person, except the hotel Shangri-La Colombo, where two people are blew. At least 290 people were killed and more than 500 were injured in the attacks, the most violent episode in the country since the end of a devastating civil war a decade ago, said Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara.La police investigating reports that the Sri Lankan intelligence agencies had received warnings of possible attacks, authorities said Monday.
Two Government Ministers have alluded to a failure of intelligence.” Some intelligence officers were aware of this incident. Therefore there was a delay in action. “Serious measures must be taken on what this notice is ignored”, said telecommunications Minister Harín Fernando. The Minister added that his father had known of the possibility of an attack and said that avoided the popular churches. For his part, the Minister of national integration, hand Ganeshan, said that security officials from his Ministry had been alerted by its division of the possibility that two assailants suicide attack politicians.
The Department of criminal investigation of the police, which manages investigations, will review those reports, Gunasekara said.
Before the Minister of defence, Ruwan Wijewardena, described what happened as a religious extremist, terrorist attack, and the police said that they had arrested 13 suspects, although no one had claimed responsibility. The authorities have not yet said who they think is behind the attacks. The Tamil Tigers, once a powerful rebel army known for his use of attackers suicide, they were crushed by the Government in 2009 and did not have a long history of attacks Christians. Although the intolerance against Muslims has spread on the island in recent years, fueled by Buddhist nationalists, the country does not have a past of violent Muslim militia. The country’s small Christian community has hardly suffered incidents isolated from harassment in recent years. Most of the dead were Sri Lankan, although the three attacked hotels and one of the churches, the sanctuary of San Antonio, were frequented by foreign tourists. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the bodies of at least 27 foreigners had recovered. United States said that there were “several” Americans among the dead, while Great Britain, India, China, Japan and Portugal said having citizens being victims.
