Terror�s new contours
The separate terror attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait, and the killing of a man in an American-owned factory in France have once again spread a wave of fear across Europe, North Africa and West Asia. The Islamic State, the Sunni militia group, fighting a desperate war in Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility of the killing of 38 European tourists, mostly Britons, in the Tunisian holiday resort and in the massacre of 27 persons in a Shiite mosque in Kuwait. The Lyon incident involved the brutal act of the decapitation of a man placed in the middle of two Islamic flags.
Fridays killings alter the contours of the war being waged by the ISIS. So far, the jihadi group had confined its theatre of war to Syria and Iraq. It has been fighting a war, brutally driving out the residents of the towns it has captured, and destroying historical treasures, mainly the Assyrian relics, in those places. But its savage ways were that of an army fighting to increase its territorial base, a prerequisite for declaring itself a State.
The attack on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait was, however, unexpected. As an Arab Muslim group, the ISIS was expected to observe the Islamic norms of not fighting during the holy month of Ramzan. Secondly, most Islamist groups have avoided attacking the oil-rich Gulf Arab countries. Secondly, Shias were never targeted for terror attacks in the Gulf Arab region as they had been in war-torn Iraq in the last decade. The ISIS is clearly looking to spread its war to the neighbouring Arab countries, which have remained aloof from the strife and trauma in Iraq and in Syria.
DNA
