Sainthamaruthu shootout | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the aftermath of the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, the terrorism in Sri Lanka, and the terrorism linked to ISIL | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Sri Lanka | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (claimed responsibility) [1] [2] Contents | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Maithripala Sirisena Mahesh Senanayake | Mohamed Hashim † Rilwan Hashim † Zainee Hashim † | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Sri Lankan Army | Sainthamaruthu cell | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 17 [3] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None | 15 killed[ clarification needed ] 2 injured [4] | ||||||
1 civilian killed [3] [4] |
On 26 April 2019, Sri Lankan security forces and National Thowheeth Jama'ath militants linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant clashed when the security forces raided a house in the town of Sainthamaruthu in Ampara District at around 7:30 pm. The house had been used by the militants to manufacture explosives and suicide vests. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing nine of their family members, including six children, while four other suspects where shot dead by the soldiers. [5] [6] [4] A civilian was killed and two others were injured during the crossfire. [3]
Following the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, the Sri Lankan government initiated an operation to locate suspected ISIL-loyal National Thowheeth Jama'ath terrorists. Special Task Force received a tip from a traffic police officer about a house in Sainthamaruthu with a group of suspicious people. The Special Task Force went onto raid the house under suspicion. [7] The ISIL-aligned Amaq News Agency later claimed that the National Thowheeth Jama'ath militants of Sainthamaruthu had prepared an ambush at the house, and had voluntarily lured the security forces into attacking them. [8]
When the Special Task Force tried to enter the house shots were fired from inside. The security forces exchanged fire with those inside the house for about an hour. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up killing 9 people, while police confirmed three other suspects were killed in the engagement. [7] [9] [10] [11]
Three women and six children were killed in the suicide bombings by the terrorists. [4] A civilian was killed in crossfire. [3]
Those killed in the raid were identified as Zahran Hashim's father Mohamed Hashim and his brothers Zainee and Rilwan, with Rilwan being one of the suicide bombers. The Amaq News Agency released a statement claiming that the militants at Sainthamaruthu had been loyal to ISIL, and that they had managed to kill 17 Sri Lankan security forces. It also published a photo of Zahran alongside his brother Rilwan. The family released a final video message before being killed, [3] [8] [12] which suggested that they had indeed been linked to ISIL. [8]
Fifteen bodies were initially recovered from the site of the clash. Security troops also recovered explosives, detonators, gelignite sticks, acid bottles, detonating cords, ISIL flags, suicide kits, and military uniforms. A woman and a child injured at a nearby house during the explosions were taken to the hospital and received police custody, suspected to be the wife and daughter of Zahran. [13] [14] [15]
A curfew was imposed in the area till further notice. [16]
The bodies of 10 adults were buried without religious rites on 2 May but the 6 children were buried with Islamic funeral rites. [17] However, the bodies were exhumed on June to collect DNA samples as the previous samples were too contaminated. [18]
The Sri Lankan Police awarded රු.500,000 ($2514) to the police officer who tipped off the Special Task Force about the safe house in Sainthamaruthu. Three Muslim citizens in the area who tipped off the police about the suspects will be given රු.1 million ($5028) each. [19]
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has mainly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians—Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.
The insurgency in the Maghreb refers to the Islamist insurgency in the Maghreb region of North Africa that followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002 to the present day. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began. While the 2011 Arab Spring affected support for the insurgency, it also presented military opportunities for the jihadists. In 2012, AQIM and Islamist allies captured the northern half of Mali, until being fought back less than a year later following a French-led foreign intervention, which was succeeded by the Sahel-wide Operation Barkhane. In Libya, the ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh was able to control some limited territory during the Second Libyan Civil War, amid allegations of local collaboration between the rival AQIM and ISIL.
Suicide Bombing was a popular tactic of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of attacking enemies to maximize enemy casualties and minimize attacker's casualties.
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid 2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first and second JVP insurrections. A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals. Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders, that posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation, that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.
The 2015 police raids in Turkey were a series of police raids conducted by the General Directorate of Security in 16 different Provinces of Turkey. The July 20th, 2015 Suruç bombing in Suruç killed 32 Kurds. Claimed by ISIS, it was perceived by Kurdish militants as a collaboration between ISIS and Turkey security services, leading to a series of revenge attacks on Turkish policemen and military positions in Adıyaman and Ceylanpınar. The Ceylanpınar incidents saw the assassination of 2 policemen by operatives of disputed affiliation, attributed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and became the Casus belli for Turkey operations in both Turkey and Iraq.
This article contains a timeline of events from January 2015 to December 2015 related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). This article contains information about events committed by or on behalf of the Islamic State, as well as events performed by groups who oppose them.
In July 2013, at the same time as mass protests began against the 3 July coup d'état which deposed Mohamed Morsi, and in parallel with the escalation of the already ongoing jihadist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, pro-Muslim Brotherhood militants started violent attacks against policemen and soldiers in Central and Western Egypt. In the following months, new Islamist armed groups were created to reinstate Islamist rule in Egypt, like Soldiers of Egypt and the Popular Resistance Movement. Since 2013, violence in mainland Egypt has escalated and developed into a low-level Islamist insurgency against the Egyptian government.
The following lists events that happened during 2016 in Afghanistan.
The IS insurgency in Tunisia refers to the ongoing militant and terror activity of the Islamic State branch in Tunisia. The activity of the Islamic State (IS) in Tunisia began in June 2015, with the Sousse attacks, though an earlier terror incident in Bardo Museum in March 2015 was claimed by ISIL, while the Tunisian government blamed Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade for the attack. Following massive border clashes near Ben Guerdane in March 2016, the activity of the IS group was described as an armed insurgency, switching from previous tactics of sporadic suicide attacks to attempts to gain territorial control.
Events in the year 2017 in Afghanistan.
The Hadramaut insurgency was an insurgency in Yemen launched by AQAP and ISIL-YP against forces loyal to president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The Islamic State insurgency in Iraq is an ongoing low-intensity insurgency that began in 2017 after the Islamic State (ISIS) lost its territorial control in the War in Iraq. ISIS and allied White Flags fought the Iraqi military and allied paramilitary forces.
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated ISIS-related terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people were killed, including at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers, and eight bombers, and at least 500 were injured. The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels that were bombed were the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn. According to the State Intelligence Service, a second wave of attacks was planned, but was stopped as a result of government raids.
National Tawahujja Jama'ath is a Sri Lankan Islamic terrorist jihadist group implicated in the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings. It is believed to have ties to the Islamic State (ISIL). President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena banned National Thowheed Jamath on 27 April 2019 and designated it as a terrorist organisation along with Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)