Black FRIDAY In 3 continents

54 killed in Tunisia, Kuwait, France attacks

28 dead in Tunisia tourist resort attack

Port El Kantaoui (Tunisia): At least 28 people including foreigners were killed on Friday in a mass shooting at a Tunisian beach resort packed with holidaymakers, in the North African country's worst attack in recent history.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Tunisian attack, but the Islamic State group, which marks June 29 as the first anniversary of its "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria, said it was behind the Kuwait bombing.

Witnesses described scenes of panic after the shooting at the Marhaba Hotel in the tourist district of Port el Kantaoui on the northern outskirts of Sousse, about 140 kilometres south of Tunis.

Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said the toll is "28 dead including tourists", without giving their nationalities.

Health ministry official Henda Chebbi told Mosaique FM radio that 12 people were hospitalised with various injuries.

"It was a terrorist attack" targeting the Marhaba Hotel, Aroui said. "The assailant was killed," he added, without ruling out the possibility of more than one attacker.

Secretary of State for Security Rafik Chelly told Mosaique FM the gunman was a Tunisian student unknown to authorities.

"He entered by the beach, dressed like someone who was going to swim, and he had a beach umbrella with his gun in it. Then when he came to the beach he used his weapon," Chelly said. The shooting was the worst in modern-day Tunisia and came just nearly three months after a March attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.

IS claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack although Tunisia says it was carried out by an Algerian jihadist.

Gary Pine, a British holidaymaker, said on Friday’s shooting happened at around midday when the beach was thronged.

Kuwait Shiite mosque bombing kills 25

Kuwait City: A suicide bomber blew himself up during Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in the Kuwaiti capital, killing 25 people and wounding over 200 others, in an unprecedented attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The blast hit Al-Imam al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City, killing 25 people, the interior ministry said in a brief statement.

IS claimed what was the first-ever bombing of a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and the first terror attack in the Gulf state since January 2006.

The IS-affiliated group in Saudi Arabia, calling itself Najd Province, said militant Abu Suleiman al-Muwahhid carried out the attack on the mosque, which it claimed was spreading Shiite teachings among Sunni Muslims.

IS, a radical Sunni Muslim group, considers Shiites to be heretics. Najd Province claimed similar bombings at Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. In the statement on the official KUNA news agency, the interior ministry said that 202 people were wounded in the unprecedented attack. A witness told AFP "dozens were killed and wounded," and pictures circulating on social media showed several bloodied bodies in the mosque amid debris.

A security official said "it is a suicide bombing." Witnesses gave a similar account, saying a suicide bomber entered the mosque during the weekly noon prayers.

An AFP photographer who arrived at the site after the bombing said the area was cordoned off by police.Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, immediately visited the site, and footage on state-run Kuwait Television showed him visibly moved by the scenes of carnage.

The television showed footage of massive destruction caused by the blast, and people posted online horrific pictures of the dead and wounded.