A country close to my heart. 
Having defeated the Tigers nearly 10 years ago, terror returns to the Pearl of the Orient.
News reports from Sri Lanka detail several bomb attacks on three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka. Reuters is reporting at least 138 dead and more than 400 wounded.
Churches were bombed in Katuwapitiya north of the capital Colombo along the west coast of the island, in Kochcikade in the vicinity of Colombo, and in Batticaloa on the east coast. Three hotels, all in the vicinity of Colombo, were bombed as well.
Story is developing.
CBS News cites a security official speaking on condition of anonymity that two of the church bombings may have been carried out by suicide bombers.
Whatever religion we’re talking about, it is sad when something as simple as getting together with your friends and neighbors can turn you into a martyr. My siblings and nephews were in the local celebration of the Resurrection just 40 minutes ago, in a few minutes I’ll be going down to Mass myself. And there’s people out there who think it’s all right and even desirable to kill others with the excuse that we name God by a different word, that we sing different hymns or pray in a different language 
Sri Lanka got new patron saints today. Wish it had not.
Duplicate thread:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=874368
God I hope it’s not the Tigers are back.
And it’s atrocities like this which bring out the best in people:
His name indicates he’s a Muslim, yet he’s stepping up to help.
CNN headline reports confirmation of 8th explosion.
The Guardian reporting indicates explosions at four churches and four hotels, most in and around Colombo.
According to Trump, millions dead.
Please, let us not get US politics in this.
We have a couple from Sri Lanka that are members of our church. I hope that their families are OK.
This is horrible. It seems particularly horrible to target Christians on Easter.
(Where would the political discussion of this event go? I assume that once we learn more about who did it, there will be political discussion.)
Merged two threads.
I’m totally uninformed about the political and religious situation in Sri Lanka. I see in the BBC article that Christians, most of them Roman Catholic, make up a few percent of the population. Have they been targeted by the Tamil Tigers in the past? I would have thought the Tigers would have targeted the Buddhist majority rather than the 1.5 million Christians.
Authorities found a six foot pipe bomb at the airport.
I guess to murder survivors as they fled the other bombings? That bomb would have blasted a large area.
It’s unfathomable that there are people that are capable of such destruction.
AK84, has Sri Lanka been relatively peaceful in the past ten years?
Horrible news.
The primary culprits in sectarian violence towards Christians have been majority Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists. Reason #58 why I’m always grimly amused at folks that consider Buddhism inherently pacifistic. Buddhist nationalist nutjobs are also happy to attack Muslims as well, because y’know, the Muslims may be anti-Tamil Eelam as a whole but they’re still not good Sinhalese Buddhists as all good real Sri Lankans should be.
The Muslims kinda get it from both barrels. The Tigers DID launch a brief “ethnic” cleaning of sorts towards Tamil-speaking local Muslim populations in 1990 who were regarded as fifth columnists. Because there are Tamils, different Tamils and then those other Tamils.
Thanks, Tamerlane. Maybe the Buddhist nationalists are behind this as well.
My wife’s parents are Indian Tamils from Bangalore. My wife was born and raised in the US. My wife doesn’t have strong feelings about the goings on there, and I try to avoid talking politics with my in laws. I don’t know if Indian Hindu Tamils have a dog in the fight.
What denominations were these Christians? I saw on church called St.Anthonys, that could be Catholic, Anglican, or several others. I know a Sri Lankan couple, and I hope their family is OK.