The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 23, 2019, A'maq, the news agency of the Islamic State (ISIS), released a video showing the perpetrators of the coordinated attacks in Sri Lanka swearing the oath of fealty to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.[1] The video, which was posted on ISIS's official Nasher News Telegram channel, shows eight men, seven of whom are masked with one whose face is visible standing in the center. The unmasked man, who is believed to be Abu 'Ubaida aka Abu 'Ubaida Al-Saylani aka Zahran Hashim, a well-known preacher from "National Tawheed Group," the radical Islamic group in Sri Lanka, read the oath of fealty and the others repeated after him.
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Shortly before the release of the A'maq video, ISIS published a statement naming seven inghimasi (i.e., deep-strike) attackers: Abu 'Ubaida, Abu Al-Mukhtar, Abu Khalil, Abu Hamza, Abu Al-Bara', Abu Muhammad, and Abu Abdallah. According to the statement, Abu Hamza targeted St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, where he detonated his explosive vest amongst the "belligerent Christians"; Abu Khalil detonated his explosive vest in St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo; Abu Muhammad detonated his explosive vest at the Zion Church in Batticaloa; while Abu 'Ubaida, Abu Al-Bara' and Abu Al-Mukhtar targeted "Crusader gatherings" in the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand, and the Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, where they first detonated several IEDs before detonating their explosive vests.[2]
[1] Telegram.me/nasher news April 23, 2019.
[2] See MEMRI JTTM Report UPDATED – ISIS Claims Responsibility For Sri Lanka Attacks, April 23, 2019
