The Islamic State group confirmed that it was targeted by the Sri Lankan police assault on one of its caches, in which three jihadists blew themselves up and 13 others died. The police raided Friday night a raid on a house in Kalmunai, a city on the east coast of the island, on the basis of intelligence designating it as a cache of those responsible for the attacks of Easter, which made 253 dead and 500 wounded.
IS's propaganda agency, Amaq, said Saturday that the three suicide bombers were members of the organization. These men clashed with the police "with automatic weapons and, after exhausting their ammunition, detonated their explosive belts," she said.
The shooting killed 16 people
At the end of this operation, which resulted in more than an hour of gunfire, the police had counted 16 dead: in addition to these three suicide bombers, three women and six children killed by the explosions, three others men killed by the police, and a civilian victim of the shooting.
The Sri Lankan authorities, who had to apologize for underestimating the threat of jihadists, pledged the strongest crackdown. Kalmunai is a predominantly Muslim city in the home province of Islamist Zahran Hashim, suspected of organizing suicide attacks.