Sri Lanka blasts .. Police identify perpetrators and increase death toll

Nine suicide bombers, including a woman who carried out Sunday's blasts, reported that eight of them had been identified, police said. While the number of victims of bloody bombings rose to 359 dead and 500 injured.

Deputy Defense Minister Rowan Figuardin said about 60 people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bombings and said the leader of a local Islamic group who carried out the suicide bombings had committed suicide at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Amidst the search for suspects, the Islamic State Organization claimed responsibility for the attacks and published photographs and video recordings of elements the organization said they either carried out or planned the attacks.

Seven of the eight elements in the pictures appeared masked. The organization described the attack as a "blessed invasion" of "celebrators of their holy day" in reference to Easter.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures from independent sources, but experts say the attacks carry many fingerprints of the organization's operations.

Charges .. Inquiry
The government has accused a local Islamist group, the National Tawheed Group, of being behind the attacks. The authorities were investigating whether the perpetrators had received assistance from abroad.

In the registration published by the state organization, a person believed to be the leader of the National Tawhid Group, Zahran Hashim, leads the group in a declaration of allegiance to the leader of the state organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Regional development minister and former army commander Sarath Fonseca told parliament on Wednesday he believed the Easter bombings, which killed at least 359 people, "must have been planned for at least seven or eight years."

On the other hand, said Lakshman Kirila, a member of parliament that senior officials deliberately blocked the intelligence information that the possibility of the country's attacks.

The information was available but senior security officials did not take appropriate action, "he told parliament.

reorganization
President Mathérpala Sericina, also minister of defense, law and order, announced late on Tuesday that he would fully reorganize the security forces and the police. "I hope to make significant changes in the leadership of the security forces in the next 24 hours," he said in a speech to the nation.

The police chief issued a warning on April 11 of possible suicide bombings by the National Tawheed Group and warnings from a foreign intelligence agency.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesing acknowledged that the information did not reach his office or any of the senior ministers.

In the meantime, the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Aliana Topliz, revealed that the FBI is involved in the investigations into the attacks, explaining that Washington had no prior warnings.

She said that under what she described as coordination and the magnitude of the attacks, it is necessary to investigate the involvement of groups from outside such as the organization of the state, criticizing the inability of the Sri Lankan authorities to monitor the warnings of attacks.

The series of bombings last Sunday targeted churches and luxury hotels during the Easter celebration of Christians, the first major attack since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

The bombings - at least two suicide bombers - occurred in the churches of Sant Antoni and St. Sebastian in the town of Negombo, in addition to the Zion church east of the town of Batticaloa, four hotels in Colombo and its environs, and the eighth explosion in the northern suburb of the capital, Orugo Dauta.