Colombo: A day after Daesh claimed responsibility for a devastating series of suicide attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people, the militant group released a video of its terrorists swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
The claim, accompanied by a photo and video of the men the group said had unleashed the carnage, emerged more than two days after the near-simultaneous blasts ripped through three high-end hotels popular with foreigners and three churches packed with worshipers celebrating Easter.
The militant group’s news agency Amaq released a video showing eight terrorists said to be the perpetrators of serial bombing in Sri Lanka pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh.
Only one individual is unmasked in the video and he appears to be Zahran Hashim, according to media reports. Seven of them had their faces covered and three of them held knives.
The statement said that the bombings had been intended to target citizens of countries belonging to the coalition fighting the Daesh.
The agency also released another statement identifying the seven suicide bombers by their assumed combat name.
The statement said three fighters it named as Abu Obeidah, Abu Baraa and Abu Moukhtar were behind the attacks on the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels.
Three other fighters it named as Abu Hamza, Abu Khalil and Abu Mohammad carried out attacks on churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo, and Batticaloa, it said.
The seventh fighter, Abu Abdallah, killed three police officers in an attack in a Colombo suburb, it said.
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