Sri Lankan security forces fought a fierce overnight gun battle with suspected Islamist militants and later recovered 15 bodies, including those of three women and six children, as they continued to round up suspects linked to the devastating Easter Sunday bombing attacks.
The militants holed up inside the home in the small town of Sainthamaruthu, on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast, were believed to be connected to the six synchronised suicide bomb attacks that killed more than 250 people in three churches and three luxury hotels last week.
Sri Lankan security forces are engaged in a massive crackdown, trying to arrest anyone suspected of links to Isis, which claimed responsibility for the attack several days later.