Investigating the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter Sunday Bombings
Attack Profile
On April 21, 2019—Easter Sunday—Sri Lanka experienced its deadliest terrorist attack since its civil war ended in 2009. Eight suicide bombers targeted three churches and four hotels across Colombo and Batticaloa, killing at least 270 people and injuring over 500. A network of 150 individuals belonging to two Islamist groups, National Thaweed Jamaat (NTJ) and Jaamiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI), was identified as coordinating and executing the bombings. The Islamic State, however, claimed responsibility for the attack. Despite several government and independent investigations, several details and the full extent of the Islamic State’s support in the incident remain unclear. This article breaks down the estimated costs associated with the bombing.
Attack Details
Six of the bombings happened at approximately 8:45 to 9:05 AM local time during Easter Mass and hotel breakfast service. The first explosions hit three churches—St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo’s Kochchikade district, St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, and Zion Church in Batticaloa—then the Shangri-La, Kingsbury, and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Colombo. Hours later, two additional explosions occurred as police were attempting to apprehend the perpetrators: one at a guesthouse in Dehiwala, a southern suburb of Colombo, and another during a police raid on a housing complex in Dematagoda.
Among the attackers were two sons of a wealthy spice trader, Mohammad Yusuf Ibrahim. Ilham Ibrahim blew himself up at the Shangri-La hotel, alongside Zahran Hashim, the suspected mastermind behind the plot and a radical preacher. Ilham’s older brother, Inshaf Ibrahim, detonated his device at the Cinnamon Grand hotel. Investigators suspect that the family’s wealth could have funded parts of the operation.
One of the later bombers, Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, initially intended to strike the Taj Samudra hotel but failed to detonate his device. He later triggered the bomb at a guesthouse in Dehiwala, killing two others. In the final explosion in Dematagoda, Fatima Ibrahim—Inshaf’s wife—detonated explosives during a Special Task Force raid, killing herself, her three children, and three officers.
Following the bombings, authorities discovered and defused a bomb near Colombo’s main airport. They also recovered 87 low-explosive detonators from a bus station. The following day, additional explosives in a vehicle used by the attackers accidentally detonated during an attempted police defusal on a street near a church.
