Terror attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France that have killed over 230 peopole will not divide us in our fight against evil, says archbishop
The Archbishop of Canterbury has denounced a series of attacks by gunmen of the Islamic State in Tunisia, Kuwait and France. The killings “are intended not only to destroy but to divide, not only to terrify but to take from us our own commitment to each other in our societies,” he said in a statement released on 26 June 2015.
Twenty eight people were killed and six wounded in a terror attack at a Tunisian beach resort earlier in the day. Photos posted on social media and on twitter show some of the dead were killed on the beach near their hotel. The BBC reports the majority of the dead were foreign tourists staying at the Hotel Imperial Marhaba 145 km south of Tunis.
One terrorist was killed in gun battle with police. Local news reports state a second gunman has been captured by police, but these reports have not been confirmed by the interior ministry. The identity or motives of the killers is not known, though police are assuming they were Jihadists. The Islamic State has called on its supporters to intensify attacks on “infidels” during the month of Ramadan which began on June 17.
The attack on tourists in Sousse, a popular beach resort, follows a March attack by Islamist terrorists at a museum in Tunis that killed 22 tourists.
At a 26 June 2015 press conference French President Francois Hollande reported that earlier in the day two men had attempted to enter a chemical plant near Lyon. The men, whom the president described as suspected terrorists, were able to break through the gates of the Air Products gas factory Saint-Quentin-Fallavier and rammed their car into a storage tank causing an explosion.
Outside the factory police found the decapitated body of a man, with his head propped on a gate post. A flag with Arabic writing was found near the body. “We have no doubt that the attack was to blow up the building. It bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” the president told the 10:00 am press conference..
The attacks in France and Tunisia were followed by a bombing of a Shia mosque in Kuwait. that killed 25 and wounded 202 people. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City. While Shia have been the targets of terrorism in Pakistan, Syria and Iraq in recent months, today’s blast was the first in the Gulf kingdom.
Khalil al-Salih, a Kuwati MP, told Reuters witnessed the attack on the service. “It was obvious from the suicide bomber’s body that he was young. He walked into the prayer hall during sujood [kneeling in prayer], he looked… in his 20s, I saw him with my own eyes,” he said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury responded to the day of Islamist terror with a statement calling upon the world to hold fast in the face of evil.
“All of us must be full of grief at the attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait. They are intended not only to destroy but to divide, not only to terrify but to take from us our own commitment to each other in our societies. Let us together mourn for the victims, weep with the bereaved, support the injured and pray for them all to the God who in Jesus Christ went to the Cross and died rather than bearing a sword. Facing such a global and long term menace, we are called to reaffirm our solidarity with each other and affirm the great treasures of freedom, in religion and so many other ways. Our strength is in the God who conquered evil when Jesus rose from the dead, and on His death and victory we find the basis for our future. “
