Jake Wallis Simons in Daily Mail, 25 April 2019 …..
- Wealthy brothers Inshaf and Ilham Ibrahim bombed the luxury Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday terror attack
- Suicide bomber brothers were the sons of a millionaire spice trader and were privately educated in Colombo
- Their attacks claimed the lives of at least 41 foreigners, including eight British holidaymakers – three of whom were children
- As police raided their £1m mansion in an exclusive neighbourhood of Colombo, Ilham’s pregnant wife Fatima blew herself up, killing her three children and three officers
- Inshaf, a successful businessman, owned a copper factory thought to be where the suicide bombs were made
- At least 321 people were murdered in the massacre, 45 of them children, while more than 500 were injured
- Chilling footage shows Ilham and an accomplice bomber attack the Shangri-La while guests had breakfast
- Second clip earlier showed different bomber patting a girl on the head before launching attack on a church
- ISIS has claimed responsibility and released footage of the fighters swearing allegiance to the jihadist grou
Suicide bomber brothers Inshaf Ibrahim (left) and Ilham Ibrahim (right) calmly walked into the luxury Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels on Easter Sunday morning and detonated their vests, killing guests having their breakfast
These are the first pictures of the suicide bomber brothers who butchered eight Britons when they blew themselves up in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Wealthy brothers Inshaf and Ilham Ibrahim calmly walked into the luxury Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels and detonated their vests as guests were eating breakfast. Their attacks claimed the lives of at least 41 foreigners, including eight British holidaymakers – three of whom were children.
Hours later, as police raided their mansion in an exclusive neighbourhood of Colombo, Ilham’s pregnant wife Fatima blew herself up, killing her three children and three officers.
Inshaf (pictured far right at a business awards), 38, lived with his wife and their four children – an eight-year-old daughter and three boys aged six, four and two – in a £1.5million six-bed mansion on one of the most exclusive streets in Colombo
The wealthy brothers – sons of a millionaire spice trader – are two of nine jihadis who carried out the devastating bomb attacks in Sri Lanka. They are believed to be pictured here alongside National Thawheed Jamaath leader Moulvi Zahran Hashim
Ilham, whose wife Fatima blew herself up when police raided their mansion in an exclusive part of Colombo, is pictured alongside an accomplice bomber entering the second-floor restaurant at the Shangri-La hotel before the deadly attack
Bomber seen moments before detonating vest inside Cinnamon Grand
It comes as CCTV footage has revealed the moment one of the bomber brothers, Inshaf, nervously shuffling back and forth before deciding to blow himself up at the Cinnamon Grand hotel. The footage from a camera in the hotel’s packed Taprobane restaurant shows the bomber hovering just inches away from diners. Wearing a light shirt, dark baseball cap and a large backpack, the attacker hesitates – shuffling from foot to foot before detonating his suicide vest at 9.12am.
Monster: Bomber brother Ilham Ibrahim
Inshaf had reportedly checked into the hotel the previous night using a fake name and claiming to be on a business trip. Earlier, footage revealed that his brother Ilham and an accomplice bomber took a lift to the restaurant of the five-star Shangri-La hotel before blowing themselves up. Wearing backpacks, the two men appear to discuss their plans in the elevator on the second floor in the final moments before the Easter Sunday massacre.
The bombers then enter the Table One eatery almost unnoticed while hotel guests are having breakfast before he detonates his deadly weapon. In a split second the plush restaurant becomes a scene of horror as the bomb explodes in a cloud of smoke and bright red flame.
The other brother Inshaf blew himself up at the Cinnamon Grand in the wave of almost simultaneous attacks on Sunday morning. Another bomb tore through a restaurant at the nearby Kingsbury hotel while similar explosions devastated three churches.
Authorities investigating the attack, which has killed more than 300 people, have described the heavy backpacks worn by the suicide bombers as ‘crude devices made locally’.
Among the victims at the Shangri-La were British lawyer Ben Nicholson’s wife Anita, 42, son Alex, 14, and daughter Annabel, 11. Mr Nicholson, 43, a lawyer from Essex who lives in Singapore, has told how his ‘perfect’ family ‘mercifully died instantly’ with ‘no pain’. Danish retail billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen lost three of his four children in the atrocity.
I= Smiling suicide-bomber enters hotel before detonating device
II = A man believed to be Inshaf Ibrahim (pictured in baseball cap with rucksack) was captured on CCTV appearing to hestitate before blowing himself up in the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday
III = The bomber shuffles from foot to foot before finally detonating his suicide vest and killing score of guests having breakfast
A second chilling CCTV clip captured another of the bombers patting a little girl on the head moments before walking into St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, before detonating a device
Inshaf was a successful businessman and owned a copper factory (pictured) thought to be where the explosives were made
The factory was raided by police, who took nine suspects into custody, including its manager, supervisor and technician
Amelia Linsey of Britian, 15, one of the many victims
