Middle East Leaders Express Solidarity With Sri Lanka After Deadly Attacks

Middle East leaders condemned a series of suicide bombings at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 290 people and injured some 500 others on Easter Sunday. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman sent condolences to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, adding that the kingdom “strongly condemn[s] this despicable act of terrorism.” Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif were among many to tweet denunciations of the attacks and extend sympathies to the people of the island nation. Sri Lankan authorities said that seven suicide bombers carried out the coordinated attacks, but did not reveal their identities. Local police arrested at least two dozen people suspected of involvement in the terror campaign, the worst in the country since the end of its civil war in 2009. A government minister on Monday accused the domestic terrorist group National Thowfeek Jamaath of carrying out the attacks with the support of a “foreign network.”