All nine of the Easter Day bombers have been identified and include a man who trained with the Islamic State.
Eight men were named as the perpetrators of the coordinated Easter Day attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people. One woman was also identified as detonating a bomb as police raided a private house that same day.
The nine individuals were identified through the use of DNA technology, according to the Wall Street Journal, and all died as a result of the explosions.
At least one of the bombers identified had traveled to Syria and trained with ISIS prior to the attack. Sri Lankan authorities are still investigating whether any of the others received any form of training from ISIS.
The group of bombers was diverse, with both wealthy and poor people among those who detonated the explosives. They were also from different areas around the country, not just the capital, which took the brunt of the attacks.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Wednesday that the group was culled from two local Islamic groups — one group was a faction of National Thowheeth Jamath and the other, Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim, has a history of building up recruits for ISIS. Wickremesinghe said that it is not known how the two groups became affiliated, but noted they didn’t want to be a large organization.
“It’s a small group, deliberately kept small,” Wickremesinghe said, noting that the government was working to find out “how deep and how strong” the bombers’ ties are to ISIS.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings, which targeted high-end hotels on the island nation as well as churches on the holiest day in Christianity, killing 253. More than 500 were injured in the explosions.
[Related: Pence calls Sri Lanka bombings on Easter ‘an attack on Christianity’]
