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April 2019
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September 2019
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There were a series of
suicide bombings
targeting
Christians
and
tourists
in
Sri Lanka
, on
Easter Sunday
2019 (21 April). Three
churches
and three luxury
hotels
in the
Colombo
area were targeted. Eight bombers killed 269 people and themselves. At least 500 people were wounded. There were also smaller bombings in other locations. One of the churches was
Protestant
; the other two were
Catholic
.
The bombings happened at nearly the same time. At least two of the bombings appeared to have been
suicide attacks
.
The
ISIS
has claimed responsibility for the attacks, along with a religious
extremist
group called
National Thowheeth Jama'ath
whose members, including its president, Zahran Hashim carried out the attack. There were some arrests in connection with the bombings.
There are many
ethnic
and religious groups in Sri Lanka. There has been a lot of violence between different groups. Most people in Sri Lanka are
Buddhist
. About ten percent are
Muslims
, and about 7.5 per cent are Christian (about 80% of them are Catholics; the remaining 20% are evenly split between
Anglicans
and other Protestants).
Most victims are from Sri Lanka. Between 20 and 30 foreigners were killed.
According to the government reports, all of the suicide bombers in the attacks were Sri Lankan citizens. The government said, they were associated with
National Thowheeth Jamaath
, a local militant
Islamist
group previously known for attacks against Buddhists.