AMPARA, Sri Lanka — Militants linked to Easter suicide bombings opened fire and set off explosives during a raid by Sri Lankan security forces on a house in the country's east, leaving behind a grisly discovery Saturday: 15 bodies, including six children.

The gunbattle that began Friday night and the carnage that followed come amid widespread fear of more attacks as officials hunt for militants with explosives believed to still be at large after the coordinated bombings of churches and luxury hotels that killed more than 250 people last weekend.

Raids and police curfews have shut down areas of eastern Sri Lanka, and Catholic leaders have canceled Sunday Masses indefinitely. Officials also urged Muslims to stay home for prayers in an extraordinary call by the clergy to curtail worship.



The gunfight Friday came after police tipped off soldiers about a suspected safe house near the town of Sammanthurai in Sri Lanka's Ampara District, where authorities said the militants set off three explosions and opened fire.



Photographs taken by The Associated Press show the charred remains of one child and the body of another wearing a green T-shirt with the words "good boy" written on the back. The bodies of an adult woman and man were found after the explosion with their clothes burned off.

Meanwhile, the military said security forces had recovered explosives, detonators, "suicide kits," military uniforms and Islamic State group flags in the ongoing raids.




"We don't want repetitions," Ranjith said.

It was an extraordinary request for a Catholic clergyman to make, as churches often remain a refuge. Giovanni Maria Vian, a church historian and emeritus editor of the Vatican newspaper, said he believed it was the first time the church had canceled Masses across a country for security reasons.

In Galle Face, a normally crowded oceanside park in Colombo near some of the hotels that were bombed, only a few people could be seen Saturday. Kiosks were closed and traffic was lighter than usual, with security officials blocking streets and checking vehicles at barricades.

Yashwant Kumar Singh, 23, a worker from India, said he wants to go back to his homeland because he fears another attack. "If it only happened on one day, then that wouldn't have been so difficult, but bombs are going off here every day. That is why there is an atmosphere of fear. We are feeling very scared," he said.

Meanwhile, cleaning crews worked at St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, the capital, where broken glass still littered a blood-stained floor, the remnants of one of the Easter attacks. They collected debris, tossing it into a truck parked outside as a heavy contingent of security forces stood guard.


The Easter attackers are "not Muslims. This is not Islam. This is an animal," said Akurana Muhandramlage Jamaldeen Mohamed Jayfer, the chairman of the mosque. "We don't have a word (strong enough) to curse them."



Abdul Azeez Abdul Sattar, 63, an auto-rickshaw driver, said a man in his neighborhood refused to hire him, telling him, "You are a terrorist; you have a bomb. I won't take your auto."


"People are shocked, because this came years after the war ended, and after all these years, we have been living in peace," said Pradeep Kumara, 36, a clerk at a private company, referring to Sri Lanka's long civil war, which ended in 2009. "This has disrupted our work, and our ordinary and normal life. We don't want to go back to that troublesome period."


A "major search operation has been undertaken," Sirisena said. "Every household in the country will be checked."

On Friday, police confirmed that the leader of the local militant group blamed for the attack, Mohamed Zahran, died in the suicide bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel, one of six hotels and churches attacked. Zahran appeared in an Islamic State video claiming responsibility for the coordinated assault, and authorities in both Sri Lanka and Australia confirmed links between IS and the attack.