US and Israel warn of potential attack on tourist locations in Sri Lanka

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — Both the United States and Israel issued security alerts Wednesday warning of a potential attack on tourist locations in a coastal area of Sri Lanka.

The US Embassy alert advised they had received “received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations in the Arugam Bay area.”

“Due to the serious risk posed by this threat, the Embassy imposed a travel restriction on Embassy personnel for Arugam Bay effective immediately and until further notice,” it said, noting that US citizens “are strongly urged to avoid the Arugam Bay area until further notice.”

Israel’s alert from its National Security Council calls on Israeli citizens to “immediately leave Arugam Bay and the south and west coastal areas of Sri Lanka.” Israel raised its travel advisory level for Sri Lanka due to “credible terrorism threats at the tourist and coastal areas,” it said.

“The travel alert for Arugam Bay and the coastal areas in south and west Sri Lanka (including for the cities Ahangame, Galle, Hikkaduwa and Weligama) has been raised to level 4,” it stated. “We recommend leaving these areas immediately. For those currently in these areas, we recommend leaving the country or at least traveling to the capital city Colombo, where there is heavier presence of local security forces.”

The alert also advises Israeli citizens to “avoid openly exhibiting anything that could identify you as Israeli, such as t-shirts with Hebrew writing, or any symbol that discloses your religion or nationality.”

Neither of the alerts goes into more specifics about the nature of the potential attack. There have been protests in Buddhist majority Sri Lanka against Israel’s war in Gaza. However, there have not been any major terrorist attacks in the nation since the 2019 Easter Sunday attack, when suicide bombers launched a coordinated series of attacks on three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels across Sri Lanka, killing 270 people and injuring 500 more.

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