As the so called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the wave of co-ordinated suicide bombings that resulted in the Easter Sunday carnage in Sri Lanka, here are few Tweets by the, always insightful, New York Times’s Rukmini Callimachi, and few others, that are worth reading:
2. The claim published by the Amaq News Agency cites “security sources” and states that “Those who carried out the attack that targeted nationals of the Coalition and Christians in Sri Lanka the day before yesterday are Islamic State fighters” (as translated by @monaelnaggar).
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
4. There are only two international jihadist groups that in my view have the know-how to do what happened in Sri Lanka: ISIS and al-Qaeda, and I would rule out al-Qaeda because post-Christchurch, their leaders issued a statement saying that attacks on churches are off the table
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
6. The reason that intelligence agencies believe the Sri Lankan attack is the handiwork of an international jihadist organization is because of its sheer sophistication: 6 sites in 3 cities hit by 7 suicide bombers. Nearly all of the explosive charges went off with deadly effect.
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
8. Carrying out that level of murder means that the cell had a talented bombmaker. We’ve seen numerous directed ISIS plots where the attackers couldn’t cook the explosives including in Hyderabad: https://t.co/adABc48Qh4
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
10. Once you have so many people involved, you need good operational security to make sure word of the looming attack doesn’t get out. They weren’t perfect given that authorities were warned earlier this month. But a plot of this nature takes longer than a month to hatch
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
12. Finally, it bears noting that ISIS has put out numerous claims for attacks in other theaters in the 2+ days since the Sri Lanka attack. Claims that take longer than 1 day are not uncommon. But 2 days? That’s rare. There’s a reason for this delay & I’d like to know what it is
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
14. ISIS has just issued a longer press release on the Sri Lanka attack, in which it provides what it says are the noms de guerre of the 7 bombers: Abu Ubayda, Abu al-Mukhtar, Abu Khalil, Abu Hamza, Abu al-Baraa, Abu Muhammad and Abu Abdullah. pic.twitter.com/3IVAZy4no8
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
16. Three of the noms de guerres used in the ISIS statement today match the names provided by an unofficial ISIS supporter channel on Monday, which showed pictures of three of the alleged “commandos” who carried out the attacks, shown masked and posing before the ISIS flag.
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
19. Again, provided this video really does show the attackers, what we have is at a minimum an ISIS-inspired attack. The investigation that follows should tell us whether there was more substantive direction from ISIS. Either way, this shows the group’s lethality is far from over
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
21. That said in ISIS’ larger ecosystem online in the chatrooms used by their supporters, Christchurch has been invoked. See this poster bragging about how many more Christians were killed versus Muslims in NZ. Again this is put out by supporters / is not official ISIS propaganda pic.twitter.com/EqimsVDXRP
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 23, 2019
“It’s become increasingly difficult for ISIS to have access to Europe."
Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times suspects that "we will see plots that are further afield from North America and Europe in places like Sri Lanka”@rcallimachi | #newsnight pic.twitter.com/DMU1m3CZbh
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 23, 2019
Actually, there is no mention of the Sri Lanka attacks being retaliation for New Zealand in IS’ official claim of the attacks, its Amaq News report on the attacks, or the video Amaq News released of attackers pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. https://t.co/y8dBS23ea0
— Aymenn J Al-Tamimi (@ajaltamimi) April 24, 2019
Interesting to see nearly identical bay’a ceremony performed by perpetrators of failed Saudi attack Sunday (left) and perpetrators of Sri Lanka attacks (right) pic.twitter.com/a90gLQqLlm
— Cole Bunzel (@colebunzel) April 23, 2019
Totally agree. I reject the revenge for #ChristChurchTerror talking point. An #ISIS terror ops months in the making with a cell in Sri Lanka led by a radical Sheikh Hashmi who has done the rounds with @alqaradawy didn’t come out of nowhere after March 15! “Revenge” is #TerrorSpin https://t.co/4xx7EhKjYD
— M. Zuhdi Jasser (@DrZuhdiJasser) April 23, 2019
So logically, planning of #Easter #Colombo #SriLanka attacks took several months and possibly a year. Hence, the plot was not put together in response to the #Christchurch attack, five weeks ago.
— Olivier Guitta (@OlivierGuitta) April 24, 2019
#SriLanka suicide bombers were well-educated, middle class, financially independent, some held law degrees!
The perception that extremists are poor and ignorant is a myth circulated by those who like to downplay the impact of #Islamismhttps://t.co/Ladh0f36Db vía @telegraphnews— Nervana Mahmoud (@Nervana_1) April 24, 2019
#SriLanka
Fatima Ibrahim, the wife of Sri Lankan millionaire businessman-turned-Islamic State suicide bomber Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim blew herself up with her unborn child, as well as three young sons, when police raided the family home https://t.co/LY7QSyMdvV— Nervana Mahmoud (@Nervana_1) April 24, 2019
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Nervana 