(JTA) — Terrorists have attacked sites in France, Tunisia and Kuwait, killing over 50 people in preliminary reports.
At least one person was killed and several were injured in an attack on a gas factory in Grenoble, France, in what French President Francois Hollande said was a “pure terrorist attack.”
At a beach in front of two hotels in Tunisia, multiple gunmen have killed 28 people and wounded at least 39, according to the Tunisian Health Ministry. French, Belgian, Russian, German and British tourists are among the dead. At least one of the attackers was killed by security forces, The New York Times reported. A security source in Tunisia told Reuters that one of the hotels targeted was the Imperial Marhaba.
Meanwhile, ISIS claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait that has killed at least 25 people, according to Sky News.
A video posted on Twitter appears to show the aftermath of the blast.
#تفجير_مسجد_الامام_الصادق pic.twitter.com/BW7SpCRfj6
— سامي الشمري (@samialshammari1) June 26, 2015
Although there is no concrete indication that the attacks were jointly coordinated, they occurred at roughly the same time on Friday morning across the three continents. Earlier this week, ISIS urged its followers to increase its attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In France, the decapitated body of a man was found on the premises of the factory near Lyon, and an attacker brandishing an Islamic State flag was arrested, according to the website of the Le Point magazine. Two other people were shown being detained on French television, one of whom is the alleged attacker’s wife.
The victim was reportedly a local businessman and the employer of a second suspect detained by police. French reports said that the victim’s head was pinned to the factory gate and covered with Arabic writing.
There were explosions; it wasn’t clear if they were caused by devices or by the ramming of a car into gas tanks.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he would “immediately” head to the site. Hollande cut short his attendance at a summit of European leaders in Brussels in order to return to Paris.
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