Ivory Coast: Extremists kill 14 civilians, 2 special forces
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Assailants opened fire on beach goers Sunday, March 13, 3016, in Grand-Bassam, a historic resort town in Ivory Coast sending tourists fleeing through hotels.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast >> At least six armed men attacked beachgoers outside three hotels Sunday in Grand-Bassam, killing at least 14 civilians and two special forces, sending tourists fleeing through the historic Ivory Coast resort town. Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach before being taken away by security forces and Ivorian Red Cross workers.
Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara said that 14 civilians, two special forces and the six assailants were killed after the armed men attacked beachgoers and three hotels in Grand-Bassam.
Ouattara traveled to the town later Sunday and said he will visit the different hotels to express condolences and salute security forces for their quick responses.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group which monitors jihadist websites. The Islamic extremist group made the declaration in a post to its Telegram channels, calling three of the attackers “heroes” for the assault on the Grand Bassam beach resort.
The bursts of gunfire sent people running from the beach at Grand-Bassam, a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular destination for Ivorians and foreigners about 25 miles east of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial center. It was the third major attack on a tourism center in West Africa since November.
Witness Marcel Guy said that he saw at least four gunmen with Kalashnikov rifles run onto the beach. One of the gunmen had a long beard, he said.
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The gunmen approached two children on the beach and Guy said he heard the man speak Arabic. One of the children then knelt and started praying.
“The Christian boy was shot and killed right in front of my eyes,” he said.
An Associated Press reporter later saw four bodies sprawled out on the beach in front of a small resort next to the popular Etoile du Sud hotel.
Jacques Able, who identified himself as the owner of Etoile du Sud and said he rushed to the hotel after getting a phone call, said one person had been killed at the hotel.
A receptionist there said everyone was safe afterward.
“We don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know where they’ve gone,” said the receptionist, who would not give his name.
Beachgoers could be seen lining up with their hands above their heads as they filed out of the area. Residents who heard the gunfire hid in their homes, said Josiane Sekongo, 25, who lives across from one of the many beachfront hotels.
An American embassy delegation was in Grand-Bassam on Sunday, but the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan said it is monitoring the situation and has no evidence U.S. citizens were targeted, nor confirmed reports that any were harmed.
Dozens of people were killed in the earlier attacks on West African tourist sites, starting with a siege at a Malian hotel in November and then an assault on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso in January. Analysts have warned for months that Ivory Coast, which shares a border with both of those affected countries, could be hit by jihadists as well. The West African attacks indicate that extremist attacks are spreading from North Africa, where a beach attack in June killed 38 people in Tunisia.
“I have always said that Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Dakar (Senegal) are the next targets for jihadist groups because these two countries represent windows of France in Africa,” said Lemine Ould M. Salem, an expert on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and author of a book “The Bin Laden of the Sahara.”
12 responses to “Ivory Coast: Extremists kill 14 civilians, 2 special forces”
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Geez I hate sloppy writing. It’s “an historic” not “a historic.” H is a semi-vowel in this use case.
I just looked this up and apparently modern usage has “a historic” better based on the pronunciation. It generally sounds more affected to use “an historic” nowadays.
This is what you got out of this!!!!! Is this your way of making light of such a tragedy??
Wrong – either use is considered correct. We all know what is meant and it is not your business to make du*mb comments.
True, I’ll leave the unintelligent stuff to you. 🙂
The loss of human life is so terrible. But many African and Mediterranean countries that are popular with tourists, especially Europeans, have corrupt or inept governments with lax security. These places make a good target for terrorists, and they’re taking full advantage of that. But in places that depend on tourism, this hurts already fragile economies.
Another stellar example of what happens when the world is left to its own devices, with no effort by anyone to provide political stability and thus, security. Clearly another consequence of “leading from behind”….or not at all, more precisely. The vacuum that the Obama leadership has created by the US absence on the world stage for almost 8 years, ensuring ‘peace through strength’, has created mistrust in our allies and brazen efforts such as this, among our enemies. These incidents and more of them, will be the norm, as long as we continue on the path to pull back into isolationism. But thats what Americans apparently wanted in 2008 and “again” in 2012. Barak Hussein Obama has left quite a legacy behind him.
Give free plane rides of ‘black lives matter’ demonstrators to promote peace in Africa.
So, the Ivory Coast civil war that started in 2002, that was Obama’s fault too, right?
It is very sick that murderers killing innocent tourists are called heros. They are not killing armed soldiers. They shot a little boy who fell to his feet and was praying. They are nothing but cowards.
could this happen in our own Waikiki Beach? Kaanapali beaches? One of our gold tournaments? Surfing contests? Rock concert at the NBC arena? Christmas eve last minute shopping crowd? Las Vegas? Super Bowl? Basketball finals for professional and college championships? This is the new reality. Then can we all have personal gun carry? The cops are never around when you need them. Let us protect ourselves.
The whole world is becoming a junk place due to devastating poverty. The West -Europe, USA etc is already being overrun with invaders from bad countries. Suicide is being touted as a way out of misery by Islam. I have no problem with Trump calling to stop immigration of Muslims.