How 'laid back' Sri Lanka became a soft target for Islamist strike


  • World
  • Sunday, 28 Apr 2019

FILE PHOTO: Police keep watch outside the family home of a bomber suspect where an explosion occurred during a Special Task Force raid, following a string of suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A week ago, Sri Lankan tourist guide Ricky Costa was preparing for a typically easy Sunday ferrying backpackers between Colombo's tea shops and beach bars in his canary-yellow rickshaw. Then the blasts began.

The coordinated suicide bombings by Islamist militants at hotels and churches killed more than 250 people and sent shockwaves through an Indian Ocean island state that had enjoyed relative peace since a civil war ended a decade ago.

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