Sri Lanka attack was revenge for Syria: Baghdadi
The leader of the ISIS group praised the Easter suicide
bombings that killed more than 250 people in Sri Lanka in a video released
Monday, calling on militants to be a “thorn” against their enemies in his first
filmed appearance in nearly five years, AP reported.
The video of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to whom the suicide
bombers in last week’s attack apparently pledged their loyalty, came as the top
official in the Catholic Church urged Sri Lanka to crack down on Islamist
extremists “as if on war footing.”
Meanwhile, a government ban on niqab face covering took
effect as soldiers and police officers conducted raids in eastern Sri Lanka,
the home of the alleged mastermind of the attacks.
The 18-minute video of Baghdadi included images of the
extremist leader sitting in a white room with three others, assault rifles by
their sides. He discussed Sri Lanka in an audio portion of the video,
suggesting the April 21 attacks came after they filmed him.
Baghdadi praised the attackers, saying they conducted the
bombings as revenge for the fall of Baghouz, Syria, the last territory the
extremist group held there or in Iraq.
“As for your brothers in Sri Lanka, they have put joy in the
hearts of the monotheists with their immersing operations that struck the homes
of the crusaders in their Easter,” Baghdadi said, according to a transcript
from the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.
He also called on ISIS-pledged militants in the island
nation off the southern tip of India to be “a thorn in the chests of the crusaders.”
Authorities initially blamed the Easter attacks, targeting
three hotels and three churches, on a local militant named Mohammed Zahran and
his followers. Then the ISIS group on April 23 released images of Zahran and
others pledging their loyalty to Baghdadi.
Police conducted a later raid in eastern Sri Lanka that saw
militants detonate suicide bombs in violence that killed at least 15 people,
including six children. Explosives recovered by authorities bore hallmarks of
the ISIS group as well.
Anger against Sri Lanka’s government has grown after the
country discovered its security services had prior, specific warnings an attack
loomed.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo and the
Catholic Church’s top official on the island, said the church may not be able
to stop people from taking the law into their own hands if the government
doesn’t do more.
“All the security forces should be involved and function as
if on war footing,” Ranjith told reporters.
“I want to state that we may not be able to keep people
under control in the absence of a stronger security program,” he said. “We
can’t forever give them false promises and keep them calm.”
Ranjith, however, sought to assure Muslims the church will
not allow any revenge attacks against them.
Catholic churches cancelled Mass on Sunday, a week after the
bombings, for fear of another attack. Catholics celebrated Mass in their homes
while watching Ranjith preside over a televised service. Other denominations
also closed their doors.
The church closing followed local officials and the US
Embassy in Colombo warning that more militants remained on the loose with
explosives and places of worship remained targets.
President Maithripala Sirisena also appointed former army
commander Shantha Kottegoda on Monday as the top official in the Defense
Ministry. He earlier requested the resignation of his predecessor, Hemasiri
Fernando, for intelligence failures that led to the bombings.
In the eastern Sri Lankan city of Kalmunai, Associated Press
journalists saw police and soldiers conducting raids in a predominantly Muslim
area. Such operations are likely to continue around the area Zahran once
preached his extremist message glorifying killing non-Muslims.
Meanwhile, Sirisena’s ban on wearing the niqab face veil
took effect. The niqab is a black veil made of thin fabric, often with a small
opening from which a woman’s eyes can peer out.
While previously unseen in Sri Lanka, the niqab has grown in
popularity in the last 10 years after the country’s civil war.