The bombing death toll in Sri Lanka is close to 300.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan officials failed to heed warnings from intelligence agencies about the threat of an attack by a domestic radical Muslim group that officials blame for Easter Sunday bombings which killed more than 200 people, the country’s health minister said Monday.
Shortly after Senaratne spoke to reporters, a van parked near one of the bombed churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, exploded, sending pedestrians fleeing in panic. While inspecting it, police found three bombs they attempted to defuse but that instead detonated. No injuries were reported. The bombings, Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war that ended a decade ago, killed at least 290 people with more than 500 wounded, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said.
In the civil war, the Tamil Tigers, a powerful rebel army known for its use of suicide bombers, was crushed by the government in 2009, and had little history of targeting Christians. While anti-Muslim bigotry has swept the island in recent years, fed by Buddhist nationalists, the island also has no history of violent Muslim militants. The country’s small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment in recent years.
Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and the ministry of tourism said 39 foreigners from a variety of countries were killed. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability, and vowed to “vest all necessary powers with the defense forces” to take action against those responsible.
Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo.
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