Sri Lanka deployed troops and increased police patrols around a Jewish community center in a popular surfing town on Wednesday after the U.S. embassy warned American citizens of a possible attack on popular tourist sites in the area.
The stepped-up security and warning came after social media posts called for a boycott of Israeli-owned businesses in eastern Arugam Bay. "The information was that a place called 'Chabad House' run by Israelis could be a target and we have taken measures to strengthen security," said police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa. He said there had recently been tensions between the Jewish tourists visiting Chabad House and the bay's Muslim-majority population.
The army and the navy along with police commandos were deployed in the area to step up patrols and man roadblocks, he said. Protests by local Muslim groups against Israel's fighting of Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have drawn support from the wider community in the predominantly Buddhist South Asian nation. Israelis accounted for less than 1.
5% of the 1.5 million tourists who visited the island in the first nine months of this year — or around 20,000 people altogether. But Arugam Bay, a hotspot for surfing around 250 miles east of Colombo by road, is a popular destination for Israeli tourists.
In a rare notice of an imminent threat, the U.S. embassy in Colombo said Wednesday that it had "received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations" in east.