COLOMBO, Sri Lanka _ Sri Lankan police said Thursday that the alleged leader of the Easter attacks died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the bombings that left more than 250 people dead.
It was the first official confirmation of the death of Mohammed Zahran, a radical Quran teacher who was pictured in a video of the purported bombers released this week by Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the blasts.
Zahran was the leader of an offshoot of the Islamist group National Thowheeth Jamaath whose violent speeches, spread in Quran classes and on social media, had been reported to the government by Sri Lankan Muslim groups three years ago.
President Maithripala Sirisena confirmed Zahran's death in a speech in which he said that there were 130 to 140 Sri Lankans with suspected links to Islamic State, some of whom are believed to have traveled to the extremist group's former strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
Police had arrested about 70 of them, Sirisena said, adding, "We will arrest them all very soon."
The island nation off the southern coast of India was on high alert as police combed neighborhoods across the capital, Colombo, and the U.S. Embassy warned Thursday that "terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks."
Panic has also spread due to the government's botched response, starting with reports that security agencies did not act on intelligence provided by India about a possible terrorist plot against churches. Sirisena was accused of failing to share the intelligence with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet due to a political feud, a charge Sirisena has denied.
On Thursday, health officials said that they had miscounted the number of dead by more than 100, because so many body parts had arrived at morgues after the attacks that some were tallied more than once.
The defense secretary has resigned on the orders of Sirisena, who has also demanded the police chief leave his post.
