…As Sri Lanka orders DNA test to confirm Easter attack ringleader is dead***
The U.S. military on Friday said that it had killed four
Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in an air attack in Somalia’s northern region of
Puntland State on Thursday, a day after another strike killed 13 others.
The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement that
the latest strike was conducted in cooperation with Somali government targeting
the ISIS encampment in the Golis Mountains.
“This deliberate campaign is building on increased
intelligence and understanding of ISIS training and recruitment activities in
Puntland, and is the fourth precision airstrike against ISIS-Somalia since
April 14,” said the statement.
The U.S. military said no civilians were injured or killed
in the latest airstrike, adding that a detailed post-strike analysis continues
and more details may be released as appropriate.
Pro-IS militants split from al-Shabab in October 2015 and
later occupied Qandala, a key location in Bari Region under Puntland State
Administration in northern Somalia since 2016.
In the meantime, a Sri Lankan court on Friday authorised a
DNA test to confirm that the presumed ringleader of coordinated attacks that
killed over 250 people on Easter Sunday in churches and hotels did indeed blow
himself up at Colombo’s Shangri-La Hotel.
The government, which has come under fire for missing
multiple warnings that an attack was imminent, believes the ringleader was
Zahran Hashim, a fiery 34-year-old preacher from eastern Sri Lanka.
However, half a dozen locals in his hometown of Kattankudy and others, who knew him, have told Reuters that video surveillance footage taken in a lift before the April 21 attack, showing a man who investigators believe is the bomber.
Also Read: ISIS claims responsibility for Sri Lanka Easter bombings that killed over 300
This appears to depict a far slimmer man than Hashim, with a
different gait.
The clip is short, though, and the man’s face is partially
hidden by a cap. Hashim had disappeared from public view several months before
the attacks.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake ordered state
judiciary medical officials to check the bomber’s remains against his
daughter’s DNA.
Dissanayake said he was responding to a request by the
criminal investigation department.
A top intelligence official said that facial identification had confirmed that
the dead suicide bomber was Zahran.
“But since there is a dispute, we are going for a DNA test,”
he said.
Sri Lankan authorities believe the bombings were carried out
by two little-known domestic Islamist groups, the National Tawheed Jamaath and
Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
Investigators from eight countries, including the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol are helping with the
investigation.
