Dozens killed in attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France

The bloodshed comes on the second Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

Paris — A gunman shot dozens at a Tunisian beach resort, a suicide bomber targeted a mosque in Kuwait and in France, a lone killer pinned a decapitated head to the gates of a factory, in an international militants assault on Friday.

The killings were not apparently coordinated, but the militants group claimed the bloody attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait, which come just days before the first anniversary of when it declared it's rule spanning Iraq and Syria.

#World on the edge: Leaders condemn the dastardly acts http://t.co/3wvcVJSJa3 #KuwaitAttack #Tunisia #France pic.twitter.com/q1Et5FXDIV

— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) June 27, 2015

Thirty-eight people — most of them British tourists but also including Germans, Belgians and French — were shot dead at the packed Tunisian Mediterranean resort of Port el Kantaoui after a man pulled out a gun hidden inside a beach umbrella.

Daesh said the gunman, who they identified as Abu Yahya Al Qayrawani, was a “solider” who had targeted enemies of the militant group and “dens (of...) fornication, vice and apostasy”.

The militants also claimed the suicide bombing at a mosque in a rare attack on Kuwait in which 27 people were killed, and militant flags were found at the site of the French attack.

The bloodshed comes on the second Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

The day of bloodshed began with a dawn raid on an African Union base in Somalia by Al Qaeda affiliated Shebab militants who often increase attacks during Ramadan.

Witnesses said as many as 50 people were killed in Lego village, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Mogadishu, and some of them beheaded, before Shebab hoisted a black militant flag over the base.

In France, at least one extremist rammed a car into a factory owned by US firm Air Products near France’s second city of Lyon.

The severed head of a businessman, identified as the suspect’s boss by police, was found attached to the gates of the factory.

The alleged attacker, named by police as Yassin Salhi, appeared to have been trying to blow up the plant by releasing explosive gases when he was caught.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the attacker was known to have links to a radical form of militants and flags were displayed around the severed head.

French President Francois Hollande also said inscriptions were found on the headless body, without giving further details.

“The intent was without doubt to cause an explosion. It was a terrorist attack,” said Hollande.

No evidence has been found linking Salhi to Daesh, although his colleagues said he used to discuss the group and beheadings have become a hallmark of the militants.

Shortly after the attack in France, a gunman entered a resort on the sun-soaked Tunisian coast before opening fire, the second attack against tourists this year and the worst in the country’s recent history.

Tunisian Prime Minister Minister Habib Essid said 38 people had been killed, most of them British tourists, as well as Germans, Belgians and French. An earlier death toll of 39 was said to have included the dead gunman.

The day’s third attack hit Kuwait when a suicide bomber entered a mosque in the capital as people took part in Friday prayers, killing 27 people and wounding more than 200.

A Daesh-affiliated group in Saudi Arabia, calling itself Najd Province, said one of its militants had carried out the bombing in a mosque.

Najd Province has also claimed responsibility for several other attacks on mosques in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The Amir of Kuwait, His Highness Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, said after visiting the site of the attack that it was “a desperate and evil attempt targeting Kuwait’s national unity”.

France and Spain raised their alert level after the attacks, and Britain increased security at public events.

Messages of condemnation and support poured in from around the world after the three attacks, which the White House described as “heinous”.

“Our hearts all go out to the victims of these appalling terrorist attacks,” Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron said, branding them the fruit of “perverted ideology”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the attacks “show the challenges we face when it comes to fighting terrorism and extremism”.

The Daesh militants rule their territory under a harsh form of law and are known for meting out brutal punishments for breaking their laws and massacring anyone who stands in their way.

Daesh were accused by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of killing 164 civilians in an offensive on the Kurdish town of Kobane.

On Friday, Daesh fighters attacked the Syrian town from which it was dramatically ousted in January by Kurdish militia backed by US-led air strikes after four months of heavy fighting.