6 kids among 15 killed in Lanka battle

TT, 28 Apr 2019, Colombo: Six children and three women were among 15 people killed when militants linked to the Easter Sunday bombings opened fire and blew themselves up during a fierce gun battle with security forces in Sri Lanka's Eastern province, the police said on Saturday.
Easter Sunday mastermind's wife and daughter injured in shootout, say police

The shootout took place as the security forces continued their hunt for members of the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ), the local terror outfit behind the Eastern Sunday blasts in which 253 people were killed and over 500 were injured.

Following a tip-off, the Special Task Force and army troops raided a house in Kalmunai city, about 360km from Colombo, on Friday night leading to the heavy exchange of fire with the armed group.

As the militants opened fire on the troops, a civilian caught in the middle got killed. During the clashes, three men are believed to have set off explosives.

"A total of 15 bodies were recovered, six men, three women and six children. At least four suspected suicide bombers are dead and three others who were injured are in hospital," a police spokesperson said. A police spokesman said that three suspected suicide bombers were among the 15 dead.

"When the police was doing a joint search operation in Sainthamuruthu, gunfire was directed at them," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said. The body of a terrorist with a T-56 assault rifle was also found at the site.

A huge cache of explosives was also recovered from the spot. "Officials have recovered detonators, suicide kits, army uniforms and IS flags," an army officer said. The wife and a daughter of the suspected mastermind of the suicide attacks, Zahran Hashim, were wounded in the ensuing gunbattle, police and his sister said on Saturday.

The house, in a town on Sri Lanka's east coast, was cordoned off after the overnight raid, but security forces waited until dawn to search it because it is in a crowded neighbourhood.

Brig. Sumith Atapattu, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan military, said it was "too early to tell" whether the house was directly linked to the group that carried out the coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday.

A man who lives in the area said members of the local mosque federation, to which he belongs, had become suspicious about the tenants in the house, which he said was twice the size of many others in the area. He said two members of the federation asked the tenants to identify themselves on Friday afternoon.

The tenants said they did not have identification with them, but promised to provide it the next day, he said.

Members of the mosque federation returned in the evening with a local official, said the man, who asked not to be identified because he feared for his safety.

As they approached the house from the back, the first explosion occurred, said the man, adding that the bombers might have suspected that someone was coming for them.

The man, who was at home when the first blast happened, said he then heard continuous gunfire and another explosion. He saw people running, including a police constable. About 30 minutes later, he said, security personnel arrived in force.

Another house a few miles away was also raided on Friday. The army said troops there found Islamic State flags, suicide kits, military uniforms and explosives with detonators.

The raids began just hours after President Maithripala Sirisena promised a house-tohouse search of the entire country and a "total reorganisation" of Sri Lanka's security apparatus. "Every household in the country will be checked," Sirisena said in a meeting on Friday.

PTI and New York Times News Service.