Sri Lanka enhances security at Jewish community center after US warning

Sri Lanka has deployed troops and increased police patrols around a Jewish community center in the popular surfing town of Arugam Bay, following a warning from the US embassy about a potential attack.

The stepped-up security and warning came after social media posts called for a boycott of Israeli-owned businesses in eastern Arugam Bay, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

"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 percent 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 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Colombo by road, is a popular destination for Israeli tourists.

In a rare notice of an imminent threat, the US embassy said Wednesday that it had "received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations" in eastern Arugam Bay.

Britain and Canada shared the US warning on their own websites, while the Russian embassy advised its nationals to avoid crowded places while visiting the island.

Israel's National Security Council (NSC) meanwhile "raised the travel alert level for Sri Lanka due to credible terrorism threats at the tourist and coastal areas".

Israel urged its citizens in Arugam Bay and other beaches to "leave the country or at least to the capital Colombo, where there is a high presence of local security forces".

News.Az