The death toll of the terror attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday continues to rise, with more than 300 people killed as of now.
For more on this and other news around the world, let's turn to Hong Yoo…
So Yoo, the Sri Lankan government says the Islamic State group claimed responsibility... what are we hearing?
As you said Connyoung, the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the series of coordinated bombings at churches and high-end hotels across Sri Lanka but they did not provide any evidence to back up their claim.
IS made the announcement through a statement on its Amaq news agency on Tuesday, which identified 7 suicide bombers that had detonated explosive-laden vests at the 8 locations where the bombings occurred.
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister acknowledged the claim during a press briefing in the country's capital, Colombo.
Let's take a look.
''We certainly the security apparatus are of the view there are foreign links and some of the evidence points to that. So if the IS (Islamic State) claimed it, we will be following up on this claim. There was suspicion of links with IS, IS.''
"The investigators are making good progress in regard to identifying the culprits, but it means that we need to identify all the culprits and look at what the network is.''
According to multiple U.S intelligence agencies, ISIS is believed to have been involved in the Sri Lanka attack by helping the radical Muslim group Nations Thawahid Jaman.
The involvement of a foreign organization would explain how a previously marginal domestic extremist group could have been capable of committing such a sophisticated and coordinated attack.
