Morocco shared sensitive intelligence with Sri Lanka that helped Colombo identify the nine bombers and their handlers in the Islamic State, informed sources have indicated. The information was also shared with India as New Delhi and Morocco have a strong counter-terror cooperation.

This was done within 48 hours of the Easter Sunday attacks that killed nearly 360 people in the island nation.

The Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the horrific bombings, which also killed 10 Indians, with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warning that the Indian Embassy was also a "possible target".

Sri Lankan authorities have talked about "foreign links" of the perpetrators and have said that "foreign agencies" have shared useful information with them.

Morocco, a North African country that follows a moderate strand of Islam, has one of the successful records of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization in the Islamic world.

In an interview in October, Abdelhak Khiame, Head of Morocco's Central Bureau of Legal Investigation (BCIJ), said Moroccan security services dismantled "183 terrorist cells" in the country that were in the various stages of planning "361 devastating terrorist projects" in the kingdom.