France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls cut short his trip for climate and sustainable development in Bogotá, Colombia and other Latin American countries, today because of a terror attack in the French city of Lyon, which left one businessman at a US gas factory decapitated and two injured. A flag with Islamist inscriptions was left behind.
A Shia mosque in al-Sawaber, Kuwait and a beachfront resort in Sousse, Tunisia were also sites of violence.
East of Kuwait City, a suicide bomber, said to be in his 20s according to locals who saw his body, left 25 dead at the Imam Sadiq Mosque and 200 injured. About 2000 people were packed inside before the attacks for prayer.
Tunisia had the most fatalities, as 28 tourists (mostly European), were gunned down and 36 were injured at Rui Imperial Marhaba and a second nearby hotel. One of the gunmen was shot and the second is being pursued. In 2010, the North African nation was the birthplace of the Arab Spring, a time when youths protested against repression from Islamic-run states.
According to France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, the suspect, Yassin Salhi was killed by a firefighter that arrived on the scene. Salhi’s wife is currently being detained for questioning.
Back in Kuwait, the Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visited the smoke covered mosque as an emergency session in parliament was called. So far, the Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIL) Daesh affiliate, Najd Province, has taken responsibility for the assault on the mosque.
This is just days after ISIS incited jihadists to go after “Shias and apostate Muslims,” and a week after the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of peace, prayer and self-reflection.
A spokesman for the US Justice Department was not able to comment or confirm whether there was a possible link between the three incidents, or state if an investigation would be on its way.
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