A police spokesperson said three suspected suicide bombers were among the 15 dead after the shootout.
COLOMBO - The bodies of 15 people, including six children, were discovered at the site of a fierce overnight gun battle on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a military spokesperson said on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people on the island.
The US State Department, warning that terrorist groups were continuing to plot attacks, urged citizens to reconsider travel to Sri Lanka. He said the militants were suspected members of the domestic Islamist group National Towheed Jama’at , which has been blamed for last Sunday’s attacks. “There is a close relationship between religious extremism and illegal drug trade. Our efforts to eradicate the drugs menace from the country could have advanced the ISIS attack,” said President Maithripala Sirisena.
In a separate raid on a mosque in Colombo, a suspect was arrested and a haul of 40 swords and kris knives were seized from under the bed of the chief cleric, police said.Islamic State provided no evidence to back its claim that it was behind last Sunday’s blasts. If true, it would be one of the worst attacks carried out by the group outside Iraq and Syria.
Officials have acknowledged a major lapse in not widely sharing intelligence warnings from India of possible attacks.
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