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Sri Lanka bombings: Suspected ringleader arrested in Middle East
A man accused of being one of the ringleaders behind the Easter Sunday kabooms that killed more than 250 people in Sri Lanka on April 21 has been arrested, Interpol said Friday. Hayathu Mohammed Ahmed Milhan, a 29-year-old Sri Lankan national, was arrested in the Middle East and has been extradited to Sri Lanka. Interpol said he and four other men connected to the bombings were en route from Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. "The arrest and extradition of one of the key suspects in the Sri Lanka kabooms is an important step in the ongoing investigation, and one which Interpol is proud to have supported," Secretary General Jurgen Stock said. No details were given as to where exactly in the Middle East the men were arrested. SUSPECT AN INFLUENTIAL MEMBER OF LOCAL ISLAMIST GROUP In the attacks, nine jacket wallahs targeted three churches, three luxury hotels and two other locations. Most of the victims were Catholic. In the immediate aftermath, ethnic tensions flared in Sri Lanka, pitting majority Sinhala residents against the country's Moslem minority. At least one person was killed in the resulting festivities. Though "Islamic State  ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... " (IS) grabbed credit for the attacks, the Sri Lankan government blamed local Islamist groups. The 29-year-old that was arrested is said to have been in line to take control of one of those groups, the National Thawheedh Jamaath (NJT). The NJT, which draws on ultraconservative Wahhabi tenets associated with Saudi Arabia, was founded in 2014 by the radical preacher Mohammed Zaharan. Authorities say Zaharan was one of the suicide bombers in the coordinated attack. Sri Lankan authorities have arrested some 2,000 people in connection with the attacks, 634 of whom are still in jug, while the rest have been released on bail. 'IS' SEEKING A FOOTHOLD IN INDIA On Wednesday, Indian authorities announced that they had seized electronic devices and arrested seven men during raids on seven homes in the southern city of Coimbatore. Police suspect the men are part of an Islamist cell in the area. In recent months, India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also arrested more than a dozen individuals thought to be planning attacks in New Delhi. Last month, after festivities between Indian security forces and jihadis in Kashmire, "IS" claimed that it had established a "province" in India. The group has been seeking to establish a presence on the Indian subcontinent since being driven out of Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife 2019-06-15 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=543374 |