ISIS Supporters Celebrate

Easter Sunday Bombings In Sri Lanka

and the Western media has trouble figuring out who did it?

by Rick Heizman, April 23, 2019

The multiple April 21, 2019 bombings in Sri Lanka, which targeted a number of churches and
hotels, as well as other locations, and in which more than 290 people were killed and over
500 were wounded, appear to have been coordinated by a foreign Islamic terrorist
organization. Supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) have taken to Telegram to celebrate the
bombers, at least several of them being suicide bombers. A Kashmiri pro-ISIS channel
mentioned a poster that had been released on April 20, one day before the attacks, by the
pro-ISIS Indonesian media outlet Ash-Shaff Foundation.

The poster, showing a hooded

man standing in front of the Notre
Dame in Paris with a text
threatening "lone wolf attacks" in

"Crusader" churches, [1] seems to be a reaction to the

April 15, 2019 Notre Dame fire. The Kashmiri channel,
however, associated it with the Sri Lanka bombings,
writing in English: "As-Shaff foundation (Pro Islamic
State Media) had released a poster yesterday
threatening of attacks and bloodshed in churches. And
today three churches were attacked in Sri-Lanka.”

The pro-ISIS Muntasir Media Foundation released a

poster celebrating the Sri Lanka attacks themselves. It
shows a photo of one of the churches after the attack,
with the caption: "Happy Easter to the Christians
traitors of Jesus ('Alehi Asalam): Here is your Reward".

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Another pro-ISIS media outlet, the Ash Shaff News Agency (which may or may not be linked
to the Ash-Shaff Foundation) celebrated the attack with several sarcastic posts. After
providing information on the explosions in English and Indonesian, it commented: "What great
news and bad news for kuffar [unbelievers]. Ok Mr Kuffar, Welcome and enjoy in Jahannam
[Hell]. HAHA..."
In a later post, after quoting media sources
that blamed the blasts on the Islamist group
National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ), whose
members include jihadis returned from Syria,
Ash Shaff commented: "Ok Mr Terrorist, what
a great job, we SALUTE You!" Following the
seventh and eighth explosions, the media
outlet posted: "Looks like the party is getting
more exciting, nice weekend yaa Kuffar idiot!
LOL.”

ISIS supporter Al-Basha'ir wrote on his own

Telegram channel: "These burning churches, I
think that terrorists are behind them, but Allah
knows best. Notre Dame and now Sri Lanka.”

Another pro-ISIS channel, Hamlat Fadh Al-

Mukhabarat (The Campaign to Expose Intelligence
Agents), published a gruesome photo of the carnage
in one of the churches, with the Arabic text:
"Preliminary photos of the celebration that was held
today in the churches of Sri Lanka. We in turn
congratulate them on this beautiful, festive day and
ask Allah to repeat it on many days and for extended
periods."

The pro-ISIS Quraysh Media published a poster with

the caption: "Sri Lanka pays the price. Islamic State."

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ISIS Claims Responsibility For Sri Lanka Attacks

On April 23, 2019, the ISIS news

agency A'maq released a
statement on Telegram claiming
that the April 21, 2019
coordinated attacks in Sri Lanka
were carried out by ISIS fighters.
The claim reads: "Security
sources to A’maq agency:
Perpetrators of the attacks
targeting the citizens of the coalition nations and Christians in Sri Lanka two days ago are
fighters of the Islamic State." ISIS supporters have been celebrating the attacks starting
before the publication of the claim of responsibility.

On April 23, 2019, ISIS

released a follow-up
statement claiming that
nearly “1,000 Crusaders
[Christians]” were killed and
wounded in the Sri Lanka
attacks. The statement
named seven inghimasi
(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. ISIS said that the seventh attacker, Abu Abdallah, was killed after clashing
with and killing several policemen in Dematagoda. ISIS noted that "this blessed raid
managed to kill nearly 350 Crusaders and wound 650 more, amongst whom were citizens of
the Crusader coalition countries..."

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ISIS Supporter Shares Photos Of
Alleged Sri Lanka Bombers
On April 23, 2019, shortly before the Islamic
State (ISIS) 'Amaq news agency published
the ISIS claim of responsibility for the
coordinated attacks in Sri Lanka two days
earlier, an ISIS media activist on Telegram
published photographs of three armed Sri
Lankan men posing in front of a banner used
by ISIS. He claimed that they were three of
the bombers who carried out the attacks in
Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019. The
accompanying caption indicates that all three
are dead.

One of the images shows a man who

appears to be Zahran Hashim, a well-known
preacher from the radical Islamic group in Sri
Lanka known as the "National Tawheed
Group”, who has expressed ISIS sympathies
in the past. Several media reports have
identified Hashim as one of the suicide
bombers. The ISIS claim of responsibility
lends credence to the veracity of the
assertion that the men depicted in the
photographs were indeed among the
perpetrators. Even before the 'Amaq
statement was published, ISIS supporters
had been celebrating the attacks on social
media.

An ISIS supporter shared the photos with the

caption: "Pictures of some of the brothers
who carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka, may
Allah accept them."

ISIS also published a photo of the attackers

that shows eight men, seven of whom are
masked with one whose face is visible
standing in the center. That man is believed
to be Abu 'Ubaida aka Abu 'Ubaida Al-Saylani aka Zahran Hashim, a well-known preacher
from the radical Islamic group in Sri Lanka known as the "National Tawheed Group."

Western Media: can you figure it out?

by Rick Heizman, April 23, 2019

Papers at scribd.com/rheizman, Photos/Videos of Arakan at: arakan-reality.smugmug.com
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