Toll in Sri Lanka bombings rises to 359: police

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COLOMBO, April 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The toll in a series of suicide bomb
blasts on Easter Sunday targeting hotels and churches in Sri Lanka has risen
to 359, police said Wednesday.

The additional deaths were the result of the wounded dying of their
injuries. At least 500 people were injured in the attacks.

The blasts have been claimed by the Islamic State group, with Sri Lanka’s
government pointing the finger at the little-known local Islamist group
National Thowheeth Jama’ath, but saying the group likely had “international”
help.

“Certainly the security apparatus is of the view that there are foreign
links and some of the evidence points to that,” Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe told media on Tuesday night.

“We’ve been following up on this claim, there were suspicions that there
were links with ISIS,” he added, using another name for IS.

Overnight, Sri Lankan police carried out fresh raids, detained 18 more
people in their hunt for those involved in the attacks.

Nearly 60 people have been detained since the Sunday blasts, which ripped
through high-end hotels and churches packed with Easter worshippers in the
capital Colombo and beyond.

It is the worst violence in the country since the end of a Tamil
insurgency a decade ago.