COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Coordinated bombings ripped across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, striking hotels and churches, killing more than 200 people, wounding hundreds and shattering the relative calm that the war-torn nation had enjoyed in recent years.

The targets were members of Sri Lanka’s small Roman Catholic minority attending Easter Mass and guests at high-end hotels popular with foreign tourists. By Sunday afternoon, soldiers had shut down roads across the country, and a jittery government had imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew.



The government temporarily blocked major social media and messaging services, including Facebook and WhatsApp, to prevent the spread of misinformation online, according to the president’s secretary, Udaya Seneviratne.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in Colombo, the capital; Negombo, a city about 20 miles north of Colombo; and the eastern city of Batticaloa.

At least 207 people were killed and at least 450 wounded, said Ruwan Gunasekera, a police spokesman. Ravinatha Aryasinha, the secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said 27 foreigners were among the dead. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, denouncing “these vile attacks,” said “several U.S. citizens were among those killed.”

News media reports said British, Chinese and Dutch nationals also were among the victims.



At a news briefing Sunday afternoon, Ruwan Wijewardan, Sri Lanka’s state minister for defense, said that seven suspects had been apprehended so far and that all of the Colombo attacks had been carried out by suicide bombers. The government has identified the attackers, he said, but he did not elaborate. He said the attackers were believed to be part of a single group.

Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, suffered decades of civil war during which guerrillas from the Tamil ethnic group were among the first in the world to use suicide bombings as a common tactic. Since the war ended in 2009, there has been some political instability and sporadic attacks, but nothing on this scale.

“It has been 10 years since we last saw this kind of horror,” said Hemasiri Fernando, the secretary to the Ministry of Defense.

The explosions began around 8:45 a.m., and the deadliest appeared to be at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo. Pictures posted on social media showed blood and rubble as members of the congregation tended to wounded people strewn across pews. The other churches attacked were St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo and Zion Church in Batticaloa.

There were also explosions Sunday morning at three hotels in the capital: the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand the Kingsbury.

More explosions followed in the afternoon, all in Colombo. The first was at the Tropical Inn, a small hotel not far from the national zoo in the suburb of Dehiwala. Two people were killed in that blast, officials said.

http://tellmystory.com.ng/story/sri-lanka-easter-bombings--over-207-killed-and--450-people-injured-in-8-coordinated-attacks-on-churc