Top Sri Lanka officials ousted over bombings

As the death toll in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka continued to rise, the government asked top security officials to resign on Wednesday and released more information on the suspected bombers. President Maithripala Sirisena asked Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and national Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara to step down after security forces failed to act on prior warnings about the bombings.

By Wednesday, the death toll from the attacks on churches and hotels rose to 359 people. Authorities have detained 58 suspects so far, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombings, and Sri Lanka has blamed breakaway members of two obscure local extremist Muslim groups.

Many of the suicide bombers had international connections, including one who studied in the United Kingdom and Australia, state defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene said during a Wednesday media briefing. “This group of suicide bombers, most of them are well-educated and come from middle or upper-middle class, so they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially. That is a worrying factor in this,” he said.

U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitz confirmed a team of FBI agents and U.S. military officials is assisting with the investigation.