The State Department could not confirm whether the Islamic State was behind bloody terrorist attacks that rocked three continents Friday, though the extremists themselves celebrated the attacks across Twitter.
Spokesperson John Kirby cited the newness of the attacks while explaining that the State Department cannot answer whether the terrorist group was involved or coordinated Friday’s gruesome spate of attacks.
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Islamic State supporters lacked the State Department’s reticence, gleefully trumpeting the attacks with a hashtag celebrating “Bloody Friday,” reported Vocativ. “This Friday is a holiday for the Muslims,” one Islamic State supporter wrote.
“The harvest of the Caliphate to Friday, 9th of Ramada: Explosion in a mosque in Kuwait, explosion in a tourist hotel in Tunisia and attacking gas company in France,” tweeted another Islamic State supporter. “The good tidings of Friday: Factory in France, hotel in Tunisia, mosque in Kuwait, battles in Kobane, conquests in Haksaka,” read another tweet.
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Friday marks the first anniversary of proclamation of the “caliphate” or Islamic State. The attacks also fell during the Muslim holy period of Ramadan.
Kirby would not answer what the “motivation” behind the attacks was, however. He admitted that al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have celebrated Ramadan with these types of attacks in the past, but said it is “too soon to tell” whether that was a factor.
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The attacks Islamic State supporters trumpeted on social media include Friday’s slaughter of 146 in Kobani, Syria; the finding of an Islamic State flag planted on a beheaded man’s body in France, the deaths of at least 27 tourists killed by two terrorist gun men at a beach in Tunisia, a suicide bombing that killed at least 25 and wounded 202 at a Kuwait mosque, and a terrorist suicide attack in Somalia.
Without naming the responsible parties, the State Department said in a statement it “condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s horrifying terrorist attacks.”
