Call it 'Terror Friday'.
Dozens of people died in attacks on a mosque in Kuwait, a resort in Tunisia and a factory in southeast France.
Its alarming. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility, and governments around the world are taking extra precaution of any possibility such incidents take place in their own compound - and Malaysia is of no exception!
Kuwait is observing a day of mourning today after 27 people died in an attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers.
Another 227 people were wounded in the Imam Sadiq Mosque in the capital Kuwait City (pic). Images circulating online show bodies on the floor amid debris.
An Islamic State-affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The majority of the 38 people killed in the attack on a Tunisian beach resort were British, the country's prime minister Habib Essid has said.
Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least five Britons have been confirmed dead by the Foreign Office, which warned the death toll could rise.
Thomson and First Choice said their customers were among "a number of fatalities", and they had sent 10 planes to bring home 2,500 tourists. The first were expected to arrive back in the UK on Saturday morning.
An emergency Cobra meeting chaired by the prime minister is due to take place later to look at the UK's response to the attacks.
Tunisians, Britons, Germans, Belgians, French and at least one Irish citizen were among those killed when a gunman opened fire on tourists. Thirty-six others were wounded.
They said they are advising Irish citizens in Tunisia to 'follow the instructions of the police, tour operators, and their hotel staff'.
Dozens of people died in attacks on a mosque in Kuwait, a resort in Tunisia and a factory in southeast France.
Its alarming. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility, and governments around the world are taking extra precaution of any possibility such incidents take place in their own compound - and Malaysia is of no exception!
Kuwait is observing a day of mourning today after 27 people died in an attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers.
Another 227 people were wounded in the Imam Sadiq Mosque in the capital Kuwait City (pic). Images circulating online show bodies on the floor amid debris.
An Islamic State-affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
However, this is the first attack on a Shia mosque to take place in Kuwait. A spokesman for the Kuwait National Petroleum Company said security was being stepped up at oil installations around the country in the wake of the bombing.
Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least five Britons have been confirmed dead by the Foreign Office, which warned the death toll could rise.
Thomson and First Choice said their customers were among "a number of fatalities", and they had sent 10 planes to bring home 2,500 tourists. The first were expected to arrive back in the UK on Saturday morning.
An emergency Cobra meeting chaired by the prime minister is due to take place later to look at the UK's response to the attacks.
Tunisians, Britons, Germans, Belgians, French and at least one Irish citizen were among those killed when a gunman opened fire on tourists. Thirty-six others were wounded.
They said they are advising Irish citizens in Tunisia to 'follow the instructions of the police, tour operators, and their hotel staff'.
"Given the number of Irish holiday makers in Tunisia we have opened a dedicated consular support line as a precautionary measure," a spokesperson said.
Of course, this is all a façade -- ISIS is neither invincible, nor is it defending Muslims. Instead, it is killing them, both Shiites and Sunnis.
When ISIS kills Westerners it receives much more media attention in the West, but the vast majority of the group's victims are Muslims. Similarly, ISIS' claim to be defending Sunnis from Shiite oppression, notably in Iraq, rings hollow when its enforcers kill anyone -- including Sunnis -- who defy its wishes.
Similarly, in Syria, the ISIS attacks of the last couple of days against Kurds in and near Kobani served both tactical and propaganda goals.
The Kurds have become the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State, with Kobani becoming the site of the first major defeat for ISIS after a lengthy siege in which Kurdish forces ultimately beat back and repelled ISIS.
And just a week ago, Kurdish fighters supported by U.S. bombers managed to wrest the strategic city of Tal Abyad from ISIS control. In doing so, the YPG, or Kurdish People's Protection Units, opened up a very real vulnerability for ISIS, cutting off supply routes to Raqqa, the Islamic State's "capital," in Syria.
That constituted not only a significant military setback for ISIS, but also a crucial blow to its aura of divinely anointed invincibility, which has been a key component of its appeal.
The furious counterattack of the past few days in the Kurdish area, complete with civilian massacres, therefore appears to have been rooted in tactical battlefield objectives -- ISIS wants to roll back Kurdish gains and prevent the YPG from moving toward Raqqa, but also hopes to repair the dents in its image.
Clearly, attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait would not be about immediate military gains. However, such attacks on outside states can act as recruiting operations, aimed at firing up pious Sunnis and stoking sectarian and anti-Western animosity in the process.
This was clear in the attack in Kuwait as an ISIS branch calling itself the Islamic State in the Province of Najd -- a region in Saudi Arabia -- took responsibility, saying the bomber went after the "temple of rejectionists." That is language that seeks to deepen and inflame divisions between Shiite and Sunni Kuwaitis.
Kuwaiti leaders called for national unity, which is a good thing. They also urged the country to unite instead against "Takfiris," Muslims who label other Muslims as "infidels."
ISIS most likely hopes for harsh crackdowns in all the places where it has attacked -- in France, Tunisia, Kuwait and elsewhere -- in the belief that stronger security measures will stoke resentments, divisions and instability.
Ultimately, ISIS will continue to perpetrate the kind of horrors we have seen in recent days because it sees potential propaganda and strategic gains.
But it is also worth remembering that even though ISIS and its supporters have shown time and again that they can kill unarmed civilians on the beach or in a mosque, word is getting out that on the battlefield, ISIS is far from invincible.
And here in Malaysia, we are small. I believe we are not prepared if such attacks are to take place here...