Multiple Terrorist Attacks Raise Questions of Coordination

At least three terrorist attacks took place earlier today, all apparently inspired or directed by the Islamic State. In Kuwait, a large Shiite mosque was bombed, with at least 24 people killed or wounded. The bombing was consistent with ISIS’s effort to stir up war between Sunni and Shia Muslims. These pictures were taken just after the bombing:

kuwait-shia-mosque-blast3

In Tunisia, gunmen opened fire at two beach hotels on the Mediterranean, killing at least 28 people:

CIbKDAkWoAAxkVz

Reportedly, one terrorist was killed and another captured. At least one account says that the gunmen “came from the sea.”

In France, a delivery driver apparently murdered and decapitated the owner of the company he worked for, and then smashed his van into an American-owned gas factory near Lyon. The terrorist drove into gas tanks, but caused only minor explosions. He left his boss’s body and severed head at the gate of the factory. The head reportedly was hanging on the factory’s fence, and both head and body were covered with Arabic inscriptions. The attacker also left two flags with Islamic inscriptions at the scene:

29FF6C6100000578-3140304-Sickening_The_victim_s_head_which_MailOnline_has_chosen_to_disgu-m-71_1435323316314

The terrorist was captured alive and has been identified as Yassine Salhi. As usual, he was known to authorities as a possible radical but had no criminal record. His wife has been taken into custody; she describes her husband as a “normal Muslim.”

It is not yet known whether the timing of these attacks is coincidental, or whether the Islamic State deliberately coordinated them to make a bigger impression, as al Qaeda was known to do.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses