US Warns Terrorists Still Planning Attacks in Sri Lanka

The U.S. State Department said in a revised travel advisory ‘terrorist groups’ were continuing to plot possible attacks in Sri Lanka after 290 people were killed and about 500 wounded in blasts in churches and luxury hotels on Sunday.

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“Terrorists may attack with little or no warning,” it said in the revised warning, which was dated Sunday U.S. time.

It said possible targets included tourist locations, transportation hubs, shopping malls, hotels, places of worship, airports and other public areas.

Authorities lifted a curfew in Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after a string of bombings at churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean island killed 290 people and wounded about 500, but there were warnings more attacks were possible.

There was still no claim of responsibility for the Easter Sunday attacks on two churches and four hotels in and around Colombo, the capital of predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka, and a third church on the South Asian nation's northeast coast.

A government source said President Maithripala Sirisena, who was abroad when the attacks happened, had called a meeting of the National Security Council early on Monday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would attend the meeting, the source said.

Sri Lankan military who were clearing the route from Colombo airport late on Sunday in preparation for Sirisena's return found a homemade bomb near the departure gate, an air force spokesman said.

They disposed of the device in a controlled explosion, the spokesman said.

There were fears the attacks could spark a renewal of communal violence, with police also reporting late on Sunday there had been a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwest and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west.