Sri Lanka Says Easter Attack Leader Died in Hotel Bombing

Coffins of victims are carried during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 23, 2019. Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—The suspected leader of the terrorist group Sri Lankan authorities said carried out a series of Easter Sunday bombings died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, officials said Friday, April 26.

Police said on an official Twitter account that Mohamed Zahran, the leader of the local terrorist group National Towheed Jamaat known for his vitriolic extremist speeches on social media, had been killed in one of the nine suicide bombings.