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Bodies lie on a beach in at the hotel near Sousse, Tunisia, after two gunmen opened fire. Photo: EPA
Gunmen shot dead 37 people at a Tunisian beach resort yesterday, on the same day a suspected Islamist beheaded a businessman in France, and a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Kuwait killing 25.
Two men wielding Kalashnikovs, one of whom was a Tunisian student previously unknown to police, stormed the Imperial Marhaba hotel near Sousse, opening fire on holidaymakers. British, Belgium and German nationals were among the dead.
One of the gunmen was shot dead, but the hunt for the second attacker was ongoing, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui said.
Authorities branded the massacre a "terrorist attack".
Meanwhile, a man with ties to Islamic radicals rammed a car into a gas factory in Lyon, southeastern France, where a severed head was also found on a post at the entrance.
The 35-year-old suspect, Yassin Salhi, had been known to security services for a number of years but did not have a criminal record, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. The victim was identified as a businessman from the suburbs of Lyon who was believed to be the suspect's employer. French President Francois Hollande raised the security level to "attack" - the highest possible - in the region after the "terrorist attack."
The gruesome killing comes nearly six months after the Islamist attacks in and around Paris that left 17 people dead and started with a shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
In Kuwait, an Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 25 people during Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in the capital Kuwait City.
In Tunisia, witnesses in Sousse described scenes of panic at the hotel, about 140km south of Tunis. Most of the victims were likely to be foreign tourists as the attack occurred during the holy month of Ramadan when Tunisia's Muslim population is less likely to go the beach.
It comes just three months after an attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis which killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.
British tourist Gary Pine told Sky News his son saw someone who had been shot. "There was a mass exodus off the beach," he said, adding guests at his hotel were first told to lock themselves in their rooms, and later to gather in the lobby.
Elizabeth O'Brien, an Irish tourist, told Irish Radio she was on the beach when she heard what she thought was fireworks. "I thought 'oh my God, it sounds like gunfire', so I just ran to the sea to my children and grabbed our things," she said, before fleeing to her hotel room.
Hollande and his Tunisian counterpart Beji Caid Essebsi expressed solidarity against the "scourge" of terrorism.
A woman tries to grab one of the suspected gunmen believed to be responsible for opening fire on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, as armed police escort him from the scene.Photo: Reuters
Three different attacks, one overall suspect. The wave of killing yesterday will undoubtedly be attributed to Islamic State (IS), which has already reportedly claimed responsibility for one amongst them, with strong indications of a role in the others.
Each attack hit a different target in a different way, and underlines the varied nature of a constantly evolving threat.
One involved Muslims killing Muslims in the Middle East itself - a bomb in a Shia mosque in Kuwait, a conservative Gulf state with a Sunni Muslim majority. This is part of the horrendous sectarian violence which has increasingly convulsed the region over the last five years and shows no sign of abating.
Outright war against Shiites - seen as apostates by Islamic State - is a core aim of the terrorist organisation which goes back to its origins in Iraq a decade or more ago. This is a reminder that the vast proportion of casualties of terrorism are Muslims killed by co-religionists.
Medics at the Kuwait mosque (left) while police work at the scene of the attack in France. Photos: EPA, AP
The second targeted western tourists in Tunisia. Hotels and holidaymakers have been a frequent target in recent years. Western tourists are both an obvious and vulnerable presence in the Islamic world. An attack on a hotel will attract global attention, mark a group's influence and badly damage the local tourist industry.
"Tunisia's economy is heavily dependent on tourism and that revenue is now about to all but disappear, leaving Tunisia in dire straits at a critical junction in its political transition," North Africa analyst Geoff Porter said.
Historically such attacks have undermined local support but it seems unlikely yesterday's attackers would be bothered by this. The prime suspects for the Sousse attack are militants belonging to fragmented local groups, possibly based in neighbouring Libya and loyal to IS.
Third was the attack on a US-owned gas cylinder plant in southeast France. The culprit in this strike appears to fit a profile that has become well established in recent years - a French male aged between 22 and 35 who was either born overseas before coming to France or whose parents migrated from Algeria or Morocco.
Some of these attackers have had links to overseas groups; while others have been closer to the classic idea of "lone wolves". But all have been steeped in a broader environment of violent activism, extreme conservatism, homophobia and anti-semitism for many years before they acted. Many have been in prison.
French investigators work at the scene of the crime near Lyon, France where a severed head was found. Photo: AP
They are "lone actors" only in terms of the actual organisation and execution of a terrorist attack; their world view is shared by a significant number of people. An increasing number have either been inspired by, or actually fought for, Islamic State.
When propagandists of the group tell individuals their duty is to take up arms in European countries - especially against the "filthy French" - they know already how receptive some will be to their call to arms.
It is possible the three strikes were coordinated, which would indicate a new level of strategic thinking and capability for Isis. Even if they were not, they send a potent message. Terrorists hope to give the impression that they can strike at will, everywhere, anywhere. This is clearly not the case.
The attack in Europe involved one man, possibly two, armed with some kind of blade. The one in Tunis, a gunman or two.We are still far from the mass casualty attacks of 10 or 12 years ago in Europe. But the sense of ubiquitous menace induced by the killings, will be difficult to dispel.
