ISIS “Ramadan operations” leave at least 199 dead in France, Tunisia and Mid East
DEBKAfile Special Report June 26, 2015/Friday, June 26, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) demonstrated the broad scope of its brutal reach by perpetrating terrorist attacks on three continents – Europe, Africa and Asia, in one day, the second Friday of the Muslim festival of Ramadan. They caused at least 199 deaths. The deadliest occurred at the beaches of two hotels in the popular Tunisian resort town of Sousse, where gunmen killed at least 28 holidaymakers, many of them foreign tourists – mostly British and German. One gunman was killed. In Kuwait, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite mosque. At least 24 worshippers were killed and 200 injured after Friday prayer. In the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, ISIS forces, after regaining some of the suburbs from which Kurdish forces drove them out last month, reportedly “executed” 146 Syrians. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is attending the European summit in Brussels, announced he will be calling an emergency Cobra (security cabinet) meeting in London later Friday to discuss the attacks in France and Tunisia, in case the ISIS onslaughts were “the tip of the iceberg” of a coordinated operation.
British And Irish Tourists Die In Hotel Terror
Sky NewsSky News /June 26/15/Gunmen have killed at least 28 people in an attack on two tourist hotels in a Tunisian town popular with British and Irish holidaymakers. Tourists fled from the beach in Sousse to take refuge in hotel rooms after guns were fired on the beach. The country’s health ministry has said British, German and Belgian nationals are among the dead, while Sky sources have said an Irish woman was killed.One man said his son saw someone get shot as he raced back to the hotel from the sea. Photographs seen by Sky News show one man in his 60s or 70s lying in a pool of blood in his swimming shorts.
The country’s interior ministry says one gunman has been killed, while another is still on the loose. Local radio reports say British and German tourists make up most of the casualties. Tourists are now gathered in hotel reception areas and hiding in rooms as the situation develops. British tourist Gary Pine said: “We thought fire crackers were going off but you could see quite quickly what was going on. “There was a mass exodus off the beach. My son was in the sea at the time and myself and my wife were shouting at him to get out and as he ran up he said I’ve just saw someone get shot.
Holidaymaker Susan Ricketts said: “It sounded like a machine gun going off. There are people crying and going hysterical. We just came up to our room.” Another said: “People are running around the hotel. No-one has really been told what to do.” John Yeoman has barricaded himself inside his hotel room using a bed and chair. There are reports that a tourist flight from Brussels to Tunisia has been turned around. Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The people who do this do it in the name of a twisted perverted ideology.”A COBRA meeting will take place at 4.30pm to co-ordinate the response. A spokesman for Thomson and First Choice said: “We are working closely with our teams in Tunisia and the relevant authorities to determine exactly what has happened and provide assistance to those affected.” Back in March Sky’s Sherine Tadros reported that the bulk of foreign fighters who have joined the ranks of IS come from Tunisia. Meanwhile, deadly explosions have hit a Shiite mosque in Kuwait’s capital after Friday prayers. Several people have been killed and dozens wounded in the attack. Paramedic Abdelrahman al-Yusef says most of the victims were men or boys who were at the mosque when the bombing took place. : The Foreign Office says that anyone concerned about friends or relatives in Tunisia should call their switchboard on 020 7008 1500
Kuwait paramedic, rights group say at least 16 killed, dozens wounded in Shiite mosque attack
The Canadian Press/By Hussain Al-Qatari/The Associated Press /June 26/15/KUWAIT CITY – A Kuwaiti paramedic and a human rights activist say that at least 16 people have been killed and dozens have been wounded in an attack on a Shiite mosque. The extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the explosion at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City during midday prayers Friday. Paramedic Abdelrahman al-Yusef says most of the victims were men or boys who were at the mosque when the bombing took place. He says the medics have treated at least 179 people. Basel al-Fadli from the Kuwait Watch Organization says he recorded 16 deaths, but that several people are still missing. Both spoke to an Associated Press reporter at Kuwait City’s Amiri Hospital, where most of the wounded and dead were taken after the blast.
ISIS plants decapitated body in attack on US-owned French factory
DEBKAfile Special Report June 26, 2015/The French police have detained several suspects after one or two men waving Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) flags and shouting Islamist slogans rammed a car triggering a large explosion at an American-owned liquid gas factory near the southern French city of Grenoble Friday, June 26. One person was killed and two injured. A decapitated body covered in Arabic writing was left in the factory and a severed head hung on the railings outside. Police named the attacker arrested as Yassin Sahli along with several accomplices. He was under surveillance from 2006 to 208 as an Islamist radical. The decapitated man was his boss at work. French President Francois Hollande speaking at a news conference in the European Summit in Brussels said, “The attack was of a terrorist nature since a body was discovered, decapitated and with inscriptions.” He has called an urgent meeting of security chiefs on his return to Paris later Friday. The factory is owned by Air Products, a US-based industrial gases technology company. Grenoble has a large Jewish community, whose institutions like other Jewish centers across France have had armed police protection since the deadly January 7 terrorist attacks in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Jewish kosher supermarket. Immediately after the attack Friday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered security tightened security at “sensitive sites” across the country, in case the gas factory attack heralded a multiple series in several locations. The sensitive sites include Jewish schools and synagogues and Paris thoroughfares where armed soldiers and police are on patrol.
