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Intelligence officials fear more Sri Lanka-style 'terrorist spectaculars' as Isil look to tourist destinations
Terror masterminds have been freed up to carry out further Sri Lanka-style attacks on tourists because they are no longer preoccupied with running the Islamic State, intelligence officials have told the Sunday Telegraph.
Agencies are concerned that further holiday destinations are now vulnerable to so-called ‘terrorist spectaculars’ as a result of the collapse of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
It is believed that jihadi fighters fleeing Iraq and Syria will now concentrate on carrying out attacks at holiday resorts. Well-placed sources suggested India, the Maldives and east African resorts in Kenya and in Tanzania were most vulnerable.
Isil leaders, it is believed, have now switched their attention to overseas strikes having being forced out of their final stronghold in Baguz in Syria.
One intelligence source said: “The change in tactics is a big worry. When they were running a de facto state that also meant running things like a health service and all that entails. That took up a lot of their time.
“But now they are not doing that they have a lot of time to push out their propaganda and they do that by carrying out attacks.”
A second source said: “It is fantastic that the caliphate has been destroyed but in the short to medium term that creates a problem with Isil fighters dispersing around the world and seeking to carry out attacks to promote the Isil message.”
A source in the Afghanistan branch of Islamic State group, ISIS Khurasan, said the Sri Lankan bombers were in contact with Isil leaders in Iraq.
They added: "There are chances of more such attacks in near future in South Asian countries. Isil will be reviewing the same Sri Lankan bombing strategy because it was successful."
It is thought that two of the Sri Lankan suicide bombers had travelled to Syria.
The warnings coincide with an official statement released by Isil which described the “operation in Sri Lanka” as a “victory... for the soldiers of the caliphate, to raise the flag of the Islamic State in new areas and to build up the presence of fighters in other areas.”
The statement posted in Isil’s weekly newsletter Naba contests the claim that the Islamic State has been defeated and signals that the Sri Lankan atrocity paves the way for a pattern of future attacks.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a London-based researcher who tracks Isil and maintains a database of the group’s archives, said the statement was significant because it scotched the idea the Sri Lanka attack was carried out in revenge for the far-Right attack on mosques in Christchurch in New Zealand.
Mr Al-Tamimi said: "It's grim to say so, but we should expect more attempts at attacks like these more regularly for the foreseeable future. Sri Lanka was not a one-off. If anything, it was a test run."