Attacks hit three continents amid fears of escalating Islamist violence

epa04819976 Members of the Tunisian security forces escort a man through a street in al-Sousse, 150 kilometers fromTunisia, 26 June 2015. According to local reports unknown assailants detonated at least one bomb then opened fire on tourists at two hotels, killing at least 27, mostly foreigners, and wounding several others, some while they were sunbathing, at least one of the attackers was killed by Tunisian security services, while a second has been arrested. EPA/STR (Str/EPA)
Bloodshed believed linked to Islamic militants hit three continents in a matter of hours Friday — deadly gunfire at a Tunisian resort, a beheading in France and a blast at a Kuwait mosque — raising fears of escalating violence during the Muslim holy month dedicated to prayer and peaceful reflection.

There were no direct links among the latest incidents, but counterterrorism officials around the world have been on higher alert for a possible spike in attacks during Ramadan and the anniversary of the Islamic State’s declaration of its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Emergency security meetings were called across Europe, and French policewere dispatched to protect “sensitive sites” — the same measures taken in January after the attacks by Islamist-inspired radicals that began with the rampage at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.


Tunisian authorities reeled with another blow to its vital tourism industry, three months after 22 people were gunned down at the world-famous Bardo museum in the capital, Tunis. In Kuwait, the prime minister, Sheik Jaber al-Sabah, denounced the blast at a Shiite mosque as a direct attack at “national unity.”

epa04819995 A handout photo made available by the French Interior Ministry on 26 June 2015 shows members of the French Fire Service outside the Air Products facility near the scene of a suspected Islamist attack, in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, southern France, 26 June 2015. EPA (Aurore Lejeune / Dicom / Ministere Interieur/EPA)

“You should expect more of these attacks unfortunately,” said Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of the risk assessment firm Cornerstone Global Associates, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

Nuseibeh and others say the online proclamations from groups such as the Islamic State — such as encouraging attacks to mark the caliphate proclamation — raises the risks of waves of attack that may not be coordinated, but draw inspiration from similar sources.

“A pure terrorist attack,” said French President Francois Hollande as he broke away from a European Union meeting in Brussels after receiving word of the attack at an American-affiliated gas plant near Lyon.

A severed head was placed on a hole at the gates to the compound in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.

France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, also said a suspect arrested — identified by French media as Yassin Sahli — was on a watch list between 2006 and 2008 of potential followers of a radical branch of Islam, but had been taken off surveillance.

Hollande said a car plowed through the gate of a gas factory and rammed into gas canisters, touching off an explosion, injuring several people in the plant operated by Air Products, a global gas and chemical company based in Allentown, Pa.
epa04819903 An injured man is helped following a blast at Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber, Kuwait City, Kuwait, 26 June 2015. Thirteen people were killed and 25 injured in a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait where worshippers had gathered for Friday prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, according to medics. The Islamic State group claimed the blast, according to a statement circulated on social media which could not be immediately verified. EPA/RAED QUTENA (Raed Qutena/EPA)

Nearby, authorities found a decapitated body. They did not immediately identify the person.

Air Products officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But a Twitter message from the company said “emergency response teams have been activated.” A separate statement said all its employees at the French plant had been accounted for and evacuated, but did not say if any were among the injured.

On Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast, sunbathers raced off the beach and others dove for cover after gunmen opened fire, killing more than two dozen people. “A state of panic,” said Tunisian journalist Moez Ben Gharbiya from the seaside city of Sousse, a popular spot for European holiday makers about90 miles south of Tunis.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but attackers believed linked to the Islamic State have carried out previous raids in Tunisia and Egypt aimed at damaging tourism and the critical revenue it brings.

“Everyone just started running and screaming. The whole place just cleared,” British vacationer Susan Ricketts told Sky News.

The Islamic State, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City during Friday prayers, killing at least 24 people, according to the country’s health ministry.

In a communique circulated by Islamic State-linked social media accounts online, the group said one of its members, Abu Suleiman al-Mowahid, detonated a belt of explosives at a “gathering of apostates.”

The Kuwait attacks followed similar mosque blasts in neighboring Saudi Arabia targeting Shiite worshipers. The Saudi attacks also were claimed by the Islamic State, whose extremist Sunni followers view Shiites as heretics.


In Somalia, Islamic militants from the Al-Shabab group — linked to al-Qaeda — attacked an African Union base in the latest clashes in the Horn of African nation.

Al-Shabab has vowed it would step up attacks during Ramadan, which began last week.