A WAVE of grisly strikes in Kuwait, Tunisia, France and Somalia shocked the world on Friday — days after the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group urged supporters to carry out attacks during Ramazan.

The attack in Kuwait came during Friday prayers when a suicide bomber entered a Shia mosque, detonating and killing 28 people in the country’s first such tragedy in nearly a decade.

In Tunis, 37 tourists, foreigners among them, were killed when a man pulled a gun hidden in a beach umbrella and opened fire at a packed holiday resort.

Suicide bomber kills 28 in Kuwait Shia mosque; 37 tourists die in Tunisia; raid in Somalia claims 50 lives; businessman decapitated in France

The gory day began in Somalia with a dawn raid on an African Union base by Al Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants, who often step up attacks during Ramazan.

As many as 50 people were killed in Lego village, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Mogadishu, and some of them beheaded, before Shebab hoisted a black flag over the base.

In France, a few hours later, at least one extremist rammed a car into an American-owned industrial gas factory near the country’s second city of Lyon.

The severed head of a businessman identified as the employer of the suspect arrested by police, was found pinned to the gates of the factory.

There was no apparent link between the attacks, but IS claimed the suicide bombing in Kuwait and the group’s flags were found at the site of the attack in France.

And on Tuesday, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani had called upon Muslims to engage in Jihad and become martyrs during Ramazan.

“The best acts that bring you closer to God are Jihad, so hurry to it and make sure to carry out the invasion this holy month and be exposed to martyrdom in it,” Adnani said in an audio message posted online.

“These are your weapons and this is Ramazan.”

The IS-affiliated group in Saudi Arabia, calling itself Najd Province, said militant Abu Suleiman al Muwahhid bombed the Kuwait mosque because it was “spreading Shia teachings among Sunnis”.

The Najd Province group has claimed similar bombings at Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

The government of Kuwait declared an “all-out confrontation” with terrorists after the suicide attack.

The cabinet announced after an emergency meeting that all security agencies and police had been placed on alert to confront “black terror”.

“The cabinet stresses that it will take whatever measures necessary to root out this scourge, and declares a relentless all-out confrontation with these terrorists,” said a statement after the meeting.

It also declared Saturday a day of mourning.

The mosque’s imam told the official Kuwaiti news agency the bombing targeted the rear rows of worshippers who numbered around 2,000. He said the blast damaged the interior and caused several chandeliers to fall.

The emir, Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad al Sabah, immediately visited the mosque and footage on state-run television showed him visibly moved by the carnage.

He later said that the “criminal attack is a desperate and evil attempt targeting Kuwait’s national unity”.

The channel broadcast footage of the destruction, and people posted online horrific pictures of the dead and wounded.

A number of hospitals declared emergency to deal with the wounded, and the central blood bank appealed for donations.

Shias make up one-third of Kuwait’s native population of 1.3 million.

Local television networks reported that authorities had rounded up an unspecified number of suspects.

Three weeks ago, the government had boosted security around mosques following bombings in Saudi Arabia.

Friday’s attack was widely condemned.

Parliament speaker Marzouk al Ghanem said the unity of Kuwaitis would foil any plot.

The two mainstream Sunni groups, the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) and the Islamic Salaf Alliance, denounced the attack.

The ICM, political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, decried the bombing as a “low criminal attack targeting the mosque”.

A statement from the other group said: “The Islamic Salaf Alliance strongly deplores this heinous crime which is carried out only by traitors.”

Over the past few weeks, Kuwaiti courts have tried a number of people on charges of belonging to IS and sentenced at least one to several years in jail.

CARNAGE AT HOTEL: A spokesman for Tunisia’s interior ministry said “a terrorist attack” targeted the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel on the outskirts of Sousse, 140 kilometres south of Tunis.

“The assailant was killed,” he added, without ruling out the possibility of accomplices.

“There are 37 dead and 36 wounded. Some of the wounded are in a critical condition,” a government spokesman said.

A spokesman for Spain’s RIU group, which runs the five-star hotel, said most of the 565 guests were from Britain and “central European countries”.

Rafik Chelly, a Tunisian minister, said the gunman was a Tunisian student unknown to the authorities.

“He entered by the beach, dressed like someone who was going to swim, and he had a beach umbrella with his gun in it. Then when he came to the beach he used his weapon,” Chelly said.

Witnesses described scenes of panic after the shooting.

The shooting was the worst in modern-day Tunisia and followed a March attack on the Bardo National Museum in the capital Tunis that killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.

The IS had claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack, although Tunisia says it was carried out by an Algerian militant.

Gary Pine, a British holidaymaker, said Friday’s shooting happened at around midday (1100 GMT) when the beach was packed to capacity.

“Over to our left, about 100 yards or so away, we saw what we thought was firecrackers going off,” he told Britain’s Sky News television.

“Only when you could start hearing bullets whizzing around your ear do you realise it was something a lot more serious than firecrackers.”

Pine said panic spread quickly. “There was a mass exodus off the beach,” said Pine, adding he heard 20 or 30 shots. “My son was in the sea at the time and of course my wife and myself were shouting for him to get out the sea quick and as we ran up the beach he said:

‘I just saw someone get shot’.”

Holidaymaker Susan Ricketts said people were “running and screaming...

crying and going hysterical”.

Dubliner Elizabeth O’Brien told Ireland’s RTE radio she also heard what she thought was fireworks before realising it was gunfire.

“I ran to the sea to my children and grabbed our things and, as I was running towards the hotel, the waiters and the security on the beach started shouting `Run, run, run’,” she said.

The tourist area was later completely sealed off by security forces, a witness said.

The French embassy in Tunis urged its nationals to be vigilant and to “limit travel and avoid gatherings”.

President Francois Hollande of France and his Tunisian counterpart Beji Caid Essebsi both expressed “solidarity in face of terrorism”, a French statement in Paris said.

Essebsi later said Tunisia cannot stand up to the militant threat alone, and urged a unified global strategy.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has seen a surge in violence since veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the 2011 revolution.

Dozens of members of the security forces have been killed in attacks since then.

In October 2013, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a botched attack on a beach in Sousse while security forces foiled another planned attack nearby.

Even before the latest attack, Tunisia’s tourism industry had been bracing for a heavy blow from the Bardo shooting, but was determined to woo tourists with new security measures and advertising.

Tourism Minister Salma Rekik announced a raft of measures to bolster security in tourist areas and roads leading to them, and to tighten airport controls.

The tourism sector, which accounts for seven percent of Tunisia’s GDP and almost 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, had already been rattled by political instability and rising Islamist violence.

French President Francois Hollande said inscriptions were found on the victim’s body, while Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said “Islamist flags” were displayed around the head.

“The intent was without doubt to cause an explosion. It was a terrorist attack,” said President Hollande.

The interior minister said the suspect was known for links to a `radical Sunni group’.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2015

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