44 killed in terror attacks

News Desk :At least 44 people were killed in separate terror attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and French on Friday, reports news agencies.Of the victims, 27 people, including foreign tourists, were killed in a Tunisian beachside hotel in the resort of Sousse, 16 in the bombing attack on a Kuwait mosque and another man was killed when attackers targeted a gas factory in France. Reuters adds: At least 27 people, including foreign tourists, were killed when at least one gunman opened fire on a Tunisian beachside hotel in the popular resort of Sousse on Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said.Police were still clearing the area around the Imperial Marhaba hotel and the body of one gunman lay at the scene with a Kalashnikov assault rifle after he was shot in an exchange of gunfire, a security source at the scene said.It was the second major attack in the North African country this year, and took place during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. “One attacker opened fire with a Kalashnikov on tourists and Tunisians on the beach of the hotel,” said a hotel worker at the site. “It was just one attacker. He was a young guy dressed in shorts like he was a tourist himself.”Tunisia, which has been hailed as a model of democratic transition since its 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ uprising, is one of the most secular countries in the Arab world. Its beach resorts and nightclubs on the Mediterranean are popular with European visitors. No one immediately claimed the attack. But Islamist jihadists have attacked North Africantourist sites before, seeing them as legitimate targets because of their open Western lifestyles and tolerance of alcohol.Six other people were wounded, the ministry spokesman said. Irishwoman Elizabeth O’Brien, who was staying at a neighbouring hotel with her two sons, said there was panic on the beach when gunfire erupted.”I honestly thought it was fireworks and then when I saw people running… I thought, my God, it is shooting,” she told Irish radio station RTE. “The waiters and the security on the beach started to say ‘Run, run, run!'”Sousse is one of Tunisia’s most popular beach resorts, drawing visitors from Europe and neighbouring North African countries. Tourism is also a major source of income for the government.Tunisia has been on high alert since March, when Islamist militant gunmen attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis, killing a group of foreign tourists in one of the worst attacks in a decade in the North African country.Since its 2011 uprising to oust autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has been praised for its peaceful democratic transition. But it has also seen the rise of hardline conservative Islamist movements.Several thousand Tunisian jihadists have left to fight in Syria, Iraq and neighbouring Libya, where some have set up jihadist training camps and promised to return to attack their homeland. Al Arabia News adds: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed on Friday the deadly bombing on a Kuwaiti mosque, which left at least 16 people killed.An ISIS statement posted on social media identified the bomber as Abu Suleiman al-Muwahed and said the target was a “temple of the rejectionists” – a term used by the Islamist militant group to refer to Shiite Muslims – and said dozens were killed or wounded. This is not the first time ISIS attacks a Shiite mosque in the Gulf region. ISIS has claimed responsibility for bombings at two different Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.However, Friday’s attack is the first such bombing targeting Kuwaiti Shiites, who make up around one-third of the country’s native population of 1.3 million people. A witness said the bombing happened when the mosque was packed with some 2,000 worshippers during Friday prayers. “It is a suicide bombing,” a security official told AFP. Witnesses gave a similar account, saying a suicide bomber entered the mosque during the weekly noon prayers.The bomb struck the Imam Sadiq Mosque in a busy area of Kuwait City’s al-Sawabir district. Witness Abdullah al-Saffar was at the mosque at the time. He says the explosions took place on the mosque grounds following Friday prayers, and that there were casualties.Friday midday prayers are typically the most crowded of the week, and attendance increases during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which started last week. Soon after the blast, Kuwait’s Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visited the scene. ISIS is a radical Sunni Muslim group and considers Shiites to be heretics.According to BBC Online: Two men drove into the Air Products gas factory near Lyon, officials said, before several explosions were heard. One of multiple suspects arrested over the attack was investigated by police in 2006 it has emerged.The dead man was found with Arabic inscriptions on him and an Islamist flag was found near the site.At a press conference from Brussels, Mr Hollande confirmed that two attackers had targeted the chemicals factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, crashing into it in a car.”We have no doubt that the attack was to blow up the building. It bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” he said. Referring to the terrorist attacks in and around Paris that killed 17 people in January, he said: “We all remember what happened before in our country. There is therefore a lot of emotion.”Mr Hollande left the EU summit in Brussels to return to France.Speaking from the scene, France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said one of the arrested suspects had been under investigation between 2006 and 2008. He said the suspect is believed to be a 30-year-old man named as Yacine Sali. “This person was under investigation for radicalisation but this investigation was not renewed in 2008. He had no police record,” Mr Cazeneuve said.According to France’s Dauphine Libere newspaper, a second suspect arrested at his home in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier is believed to be a man who was seen driving back and forth past the factory before the attack at around 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT).A spokesman for Air Products said: “We can confirm that an incident occurred at our facility in L’Isle-d’Abeau, France yesterday morning. “Our priority at this stage is to take care of our employees, who have been evacuated from the site and all accounted for.” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ordered that security be stepped up at sensitive sites around Lyon. Alain Juppe, the mayor of Bordeaux, took to Twitter to condemn the attack. “The terrorist threat is at a maximum,” he said, adding that France “must make every effort to protect its citizens”.