ISIS: Early this morning, photos and posts were shared on Telegram and on the Amaq News Agency page claiming that the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka were carried out by ISIS fighters. Three photos were shared on the Telegram post of the men they claim carried out the attacks. One of the men has been identified as a well-known preacher from a radical Islamic group in Sri Lanka known as the National Tawheed Group and has expressed sympathy with ISIS in the past. ISIS has been working to rebuild its reputation since losing significant ground in Iraq and Syria, as well as losing what is believed to be every member of their cyber-division. Following the loss of their cyber-division, the group’s online presence has been suffering greatly. Some efforts have been made to try to rebuild the group’s online presence, but so far has not been overly successful. Recently the Amaq news Agency has been making a greater push to try to rebuild attention for the group, especially throughout South East Asia
Analyst Notes
There are a number of pro-Islamic hacker groups throughout South East Asia which could likely easily be turned to support ISIS’ cause following an attack and propaganda like this.
